Dr George Duru surgery in Oldham put into 'special measures'

The Duru Practice, ran by Dr George Duru and located in the Integrated Care Centre, has been given the lowest possible rating following a visit by healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission.

During the inspection, carried out in May, several areas of concern were identified including medicine management and infection prevention, which were both deemed ineffective, and five regulation breaches were discovered.

The report published last month details how inspectors found more than 30 cases of potentially missed diabetes diagnoses, expired hypodermic needles in the healthcare assistant’s room, and that asthma inhalers had been overprescribed.

The New Radcliffe Street practice was rated “inadequate” in four of the five main areas it was marked on – its safety, effectiveness, leadership, and responsiveness.

For the caring category it was rated “requires improvement” with inspectors finding that a patient had been asked to register with a new practice when they made a complaint.

Inspectors also uncovered that no record of informal complaints had been made, or information provided on how to escalate a complaint.

The practice's latest rating is a major downgrade from its previous score given after an inspection on November 11, 2016, when the surgery was rated “good” overall.

Inspectors who visited in May this year found that clinicians were not always up to date with current guidance, childhood vaccinations were below target, blood tests were not always repeated at appropriate intervals, and patients with asthma were prescribed rescue steroids without appropriate consultation.

During the inspection, it was discovered that not all staff were trained in safeguarding and no checks had been carried out to confirm whether the practice nurse had the required training to carry out their role.

It was also found that there was no formal clinical supervision for the nurses or healthcare assistant, staff appraisals were not routinely carried out, training was not adequately monitored, and professional registration checks were not undertaken on an ongoing basis or checks to confirm staff had the right to work in the UK.

Policies surrounding fire safety were also not being followed. Inspectors found that the fire warden did not work full time and the deputy fire warden was not trained. Meanwhile, not all staff had completed training in fire safety or infection prevention and control.

Inspectors also found that appointments were difficult to access unless patients could get through on the telephone or attend the practice, and only on the day appointments were available.

The Duru Practice declined to comment on the inspection.

To read the full report go to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website.