A BRADFORD medical centre has hit out at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and accused the health watchdog of “inaccuracies” in its report.

Ashwell Medical Centre, on Ashwell Road, Manningham, was visited by inspectors on March 10 and was rated as Requires Improvement overall.

The practice said it was “disappointed” with the report and said it was refused a formal meeting with the CQC.

A report from the inspection said: “We found that: The practice did not always provide care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm. Patients did not receive effective care and treatment that met their needs. Key quality indicators showed further reduction in performance including uptake of childhood immunisation and cancer screening.”

The report detailed regulations which were not being met.

It said: "The equipment being used to care for and treat service users was not safe for use. In particular: We found an opened swab kit present amongst other medical supplies. Expired equipment and supplies were present amongst other items which were ready to use."

Concerns were also raised about the management of medicines and the report said: "Managing and storing substances and equipment safely, whilst mitigating infection control risks was limited."

It also said the practice did not have a system in place to monitor equipment and supplies, to remove items which had passed their use by dates, or to monitor checks of emergency medication and equipment and that "confidentiality was not consistently maintained".

However, the report said feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treated people. A spokesperson for Ashwell Medical Centre said: “The practice recognises that there are clearly some areas where improvements can be made and realise that their attention on the days leading up to the inspection were focussed on the rapidly evolving Covid crisis rather than collating large amounts of evidence required by CQC for their inspection.

“The practice disagrees with many of the ‘findings’ which are not evidence based and in many cases are contrary to the evidence that was presented. The practice has written to CQC regarding the accuracy of the data and assumptions that CQC have used in the generation of the report and, whilst this resulted in CQC modifying some wording, they did not remove many of the inaccuracies and the assumptions based on those inaccuracies from their document. The practice asked for a formal meeting with CQC to discuss and correct the numerous errors in the report but this was refused by CQC.”

A CQC spokesperson said: "CQC returned to Ashwell Medical Centre in March 2020 to check whether concerns identified at the previous inspection last year had been addressed. The latest inspection acknowledges some improvements had been made, however, concerns that patients could be exposed to avoidable harm were identified.

"All CQC inspection reports are subject to rigorous internal quality assurance processes and are open to challenge through several formal routes. Ashwell Medical Centre commented on the factual accuracy prior to publication and CQC has since spoken to the service clarifying the inspection and report process. CQC will return to reinspect and report on their findings in due course.”