GP practice remains in special measures

A GP surgery remains in special measures following an inspection that said it was "inadequate".

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) reviewed Dr Bekas GP practice in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, last August after it began closely monitoring it in 2023.

The watchdog gave it an overall "inadequate" rating once again and raised concerns including that "staff didn't always assess or monitor people's needs in line with national standards".

It said it would "continue to monitor the practice closely". The surgery declined to comment.

Inspectors found that sufficient improvements had not been made at the site.

Hazel Roberts, the CQC's deputy director of operations for the East of England, said: "When we inspected the practice, we were concerned to find leaders still weren't always acting on risks to people's safety, including those we raised at our last inspection.

"While staff were doing their best, leaders had failed to support them with good systems and processes to support high quality care.

"Staff didn't always assess or monitor people's needs in line with national standards, and we were particularly concerned about care for people with long term conditions or using high-risk medicines.

"For example, we found the practice had potentially missed a diagnosis of diabetes, while other people's medicines weren't being reviewed regularly to protect them from side effects. Leaders agreed to review care for all people in similar circumstances following our inspection."

She added that a number of experienced staff had left the practice in the past year and the availability of appointments continued to be a problem.

Inspectors also reported gaps in staff training around sepsis and safeguarding people from abuse.

Their report stated that "high workloads meant training and learning was often deprioritised".

Inspectors also discovered that actions needed to reduce people's risk of infection had not been met since the last report.

The CQC said it would monitor the practice and inspect it again to assess whether it had addressed the issues raised.

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