A BRADFORD GP practice member organisation has been told to improve by the health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the Bradford Care Alliance CIC for the first time on June 29 and rated it as ‘requires improvement’.

The Bradford Care Alliance was established in 2016 and is made up of 55 practices. The social enterprise “pools the expertise of the majority of the district’s General Practices”. 

It states that it “brings together the full range of health and social care providers in an unprecedented way” and says: “By breaking down organisational boundaries, and representing practices “as one” for an increasing range of contracts, we are best placed to deliver local, high quality, coordinated care in ways that break new ground.”

Inspectors rated the alliance as ‘requires improvement’ in the key questions relating to safety, effectiveness and leadership and as ‘good’ in the questions relating to how caring and responsive it is.  

Inspectors said the provider “did not have systems and processes in place to maintain complete oversight of health and safety, fire safety or infection prevention and control for staff or patients at the hub sites”. 

The report said: “At the time of our inspection, the provider had limited systems in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from abuse.

"The provider could not assure themselves that all staff working to deliver regulated activities had completed child or adult safeguarding training, or had completed a disclosure and barring service check.”

Concerns were also raised that a system was not in place to record the immunisation status of staff who had direct patient contact.

The report said the alliance did not have a system to ensure emergency equipment was checked and fit for use.

Inspectors said not all staff were aware of the outcomes, or any learning, arising from significant events and complaints and “none of the complaints we reviewed contained information of how the lessons learned or changes made to services were discussed and disseminated to staff”. 

There was also said to be “limited evidence of quality improvement”. However, the report said staff treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

It added: “Patient feedback was positive and reflected that patients were able to access care and treatment at a time to suit them. The service was described as helpful, caring and convenient.”

Staff at all levels or the organisation “understood patients’ personal, cultural, social and religious needs”.

Richard Wall, Chief Operating Officer at Bradford Care Alliance, said: “Although disappointed, we accepted the outcome of the inspection and we are already working hard to address the gaps the CQC have identified.

“Our focus throughout the pandemic has been on trying to keep our services as accessible as possible by continuing to offer out of hours Extended Access primary care support for the thousands of patients who have used the service during these difficult times.

"There has been an effect on some of our assurance processes during this time and the whole team are working hard to address the gaps highlighted by the inspection.

"We have formulated an action plan, and have already made significant improvements within these processes.”

He said the alliance wanted to reassure patients that services are safe and added: “We will continue to support the local population with access to GPs and other primary care professionals in the evenings and at weekends, for both routine and more urgent healthcare needs, and work with our patients and staff to provide the best service and care possible.”