Statement regarding our recent CQC Inspection

Following a visit from Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors on the 3rd and 4th May 2023 we, the partners and staff at Eltham Palace Surgery (EPS), would like to acknowledge the good work the CQC do in ensuring that patient care in all areas of the health service is safe, effective, caring and well-led.

We were obviously disappointed by the outcome of the CQC inspection.

All staff at Eltham Palace Surgery work incredibly hard and put in many hours behind the scenes to give the care we are commissioned to provide to our patients. We would like to reassure our patients that we are doing all that we can to address the issues raised by the CQC quickly.

The partners also acknowledge that there are issues and differences on how the practice should be managed which has contributed to some of the concerns raised after the inspection.

We started off as a 3-partner practice with 5500 patients. During COVID one of the partners resigned and we had an influx of >2000 patients register at a time when GP recruitment and availability was (and still is) a national problem. We have been unable to recruit any salaried GPs in the last 2 years and have had to rely on locums to meet the demand.

Since the CQC inspection we have looked at ways to improve patient access and with the help of the local Primary Care Network (PCN), we are now able to provide patients with increased access to services such as dieticians, pharmacists, physicians associate, mental health nurse and first contact physiotherapist.

We identified the specific problems with recruitment of GP sessions and patients now access routine GP appointments in line with the national average, and requests for urgent appointments are met 85-100% of the time. This will ensure that all patients including those with long-term conditions and high-risk medications are monitored regularly as per national guidelines.

The partners have agreed to approach the Local Medical Council (LMC) colleagues to facilitate an improved professional relationship between the partners and enable us to deliver the best possible patient care.

We have identified where some of our processes were not being followed as expected and are reviewing our internal procedures and identify areas of improvement that will place qualified staff in positions to deliver efficient services and ensure staff are consistently supported to perform their roles.

We continue to work positively with the CQC and SE London Integrated Care Board and make good progress as acknowledged by the CQC inspector recently.

Drs Esme Peters and Jorge Ribeiro