A SWINDON doctors’ surgery placed in special measures last year is slowly improving, a health watchdog says.

Park Lane Practice was handed an inadequate rating by the Care Quality Commission after an inspection last April.

Now, after a string of interventions by practice managers, inspectors have improved their rating of the surgery to requires improvement.

But it remains in special measures with another inspection planned within six months to make sure it continues to improve.

In an inspection report published this month, Professor Steve Field, the CQC’s chief inspector of general practice, said: “We found the practice had reviewed and revised many areas of the practice, particularly in relation to management and governance.

“However, there were still areas which needed to be addressed and some regulations which were not being met.”

They warned that the practice’s system for undertaking cervical screening tests was not in line with guidance and the problems were going unnoticed by management.

The practice underperformed on patient satisfaction scores compared to local and national averages.

Patients also complained that they found the appointments system difficult to use.

There was no clear plan about how feedback from patients could be addressed, inspectors added.

Rating the practice’s leadership as inadequate, inspectors admitted that the practice had reviewed and revised many areas of their work with help from NHS and doctors’ groups.

However, they added: “We found areas of concern and continued breaches of regulation relating to good governance.”

They demanded practice managers establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance.

The CQC did, however, say the practice had clear systems to manage risks.

Dr Humaira Ramzan, registered manager of the Park Lane Practice, said changes had been made since the inspectors’ visit, with patient survey scores already showing improvement.

“I am very appreciative of the exceptionally hard work done by our practice team over the last year to improve our rating and am pleased that the CQC noted many areas of positive change and examples of good practice during the inspection,” He told the Advertiser

“We have made changes to our cervical screening processes since the inspection and more recent patient surveys, including our friends and family feedback, are showing improvement.

"We shall continue to work hard to address the few remaining areas which have been highlighted in the report.”