A GP surgery has been told to improve after an inspection by the healthcare watchdog.

Lees Medical Practice on Athens Way in Lees has been given a "requires improvement" rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in all five areas reviewed- whether the practice is safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led.

Inspectors said staff did not always treat patients with kindness, respect and compassion – with negative feedback from patients about how they were treated.

The practice was given advanced notice of the inspection, which took place in September.

Inspectors said the practice “did not always provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm", with the practice found to be breaching regulations in regards to safe care and good governance.

The CQC found that systems for contacting patients who did not attend their appointments was ineffective.

Additionally, inspectors found that the GP did not review patient records in a timely manner, and that some patients on some high-risk medicines were not monitored properly, in breach of regulations.

In the report, inspectors detailed how the lead GPs at the practice did not know where referral records were kept – and found that certain referrals had not been coded separately when they should have been.

People with severe mental illness were found to not always be referred to appropriate services, with ongoing needs not fully assessed.

Furthermore, inspectors said that staff did not always involve patients in decisions about their care.

Inspectors told the practice it needed to conduct a more robust review of patients on the child protection register, that it should review its policies for managing safety alerts, and that the practice needed to carry out a clinical audit to monitor their standards.

However, inspectors said that health and safety procedures at the practice were well managed, with appropriate standards of cleanliness

Additionally, inspectors said staff recruitment procedures were in line with good practice.

Childhood immunisation rates were found to be slightly lower than WHO recommended levels, with 81 per cent of children aged five having received two doses of the MMR vaccine, below the 90 per cent minimum and WHO 95 per cent target – however inspectors said the practice had provided evidence afterwards to show rates had improved.

Cervical screenings were also found to be well below target, with just 62 per cent of those eligible having been screened adequately, well below the 80 per cent target.

Lees Medical Practice was contacted for comment.

The full report can be found on the CQC website.