'Deficient' practice slipped 'beneath the managerial radar'

Norfolk primary care trust and Norfolk Community Health Care, which ran the practice until April, were criticised in a report commissioned by NHS East of England chief nurse Ruth May, following four serious incidents, a patient death and the suspension of two GPs at Downham Market Health Centre during 2010-11.

The report, conducted by a team from Collingham Healthcare Education Centre, said the nurse-led practice “was allowed to slip beneath the managerial radar of both organisations.”

During a period when community services were being divested from the primary care trust to the separate community trust, the report found there was “blurring of the organisational roles”.

Following the departure of senior managerial and clinical staff, two GPs were suspended after serious incidents, leaving the practice relying on “short term agency locums with no clinical leadership”, according to the report.

It found there was “a serious deficiency in safe general practice” and the “risk and deficiencies” described by service users “may have resulted in harm”, but there were no definite examples.

The report was presented to NHS East of England’s board on Thursday. NHS Norfolk chief executive Andrew Morgan told the meeting he was “ashamed of what happened” at Downham Market.

NHS East of England Chief nurse Ruth May said the strategic health authority “will work closely with NHS Norfolk to ensure that all the recommendations made by the report are implemented promptly. We are reassured by the findings of the report that the service, under the new management of Vida Healthcare since April 2011, has already improved.”

Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust’s board have accepted the findings. Acting chief executive Paul Cracknell acknowledged “the management of Downham Market Health Centre was at times not up to the very high standards that our patients have a right to expect from our services”.