A doctors surgery in Folkestone has been put into special measures after inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the facility 'inadequate'.

During a two day inspection at Guildhall Surgery, the CQC found some staff 'had not received training in basic life support', some had 'not completed mandatory safeguarding training' and others had not had Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.

Following the visit in February, a report was published on April 1 which explained there were four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

It said the practice had adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the pandemic which had an effect on the overall performance.

While staff were 'committed, conscientious and caring' the surgery 'failed to ensure staff had adequate training and supervision' and in some cases, proper employment and DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks had not been carried out.

It also found there was 'a lack of governance systems' leading to some risks not being identified.

Some recommended emergency medicines were not available, a health and safety risk assessment had not been carried out since March 2018 and safeguarding processes were not operating effectively to prevent abuse of service users.

"We identified patients who had not been appropriately monitored, potentially placing their health at risk..."

It added 'some vulnerable patients did not have appropriate flags on their records and there was no narrative recorded to alert the clinician to the concerns.'

Although 'the majority of patients who completed the Friends and Family Test would recommend the practice' the report added that 'improvements were required to ensure the safe prescribing and monitoring of patients with long term conditions.'

It said: "We identified patients who had not been appropriately monitored, potentially placing their health at risk.

"Staff had not received formal training in sepsis and aide memoirs were not available to assist staff to identify deteriorating or acutely unwell patients.

"We found the practice did not have detailed cleaning schedules identifying tasks and frequency of cleaning required for the practice to undertake and those undertaken by the external cleaning company.

"Staff had not completed infection prevention control training or their competencies in this area."

The surgery in Guildhall Road serves a patient population of around 9,137 and had not been inspected since March 2016 when the practice was rated 'good'.

Bosses at the surgery must now send the CQC details of what action they will take to meet these requirements.

Then, it will be inspected again in six months time to see if any improvements have been made.

The surgery has been contacted for a comment.