A NORTH Swindon surgery with 12,000 patients is neither practising safely nor vetting employees’ criminal records before appointing them, according to the health watchdog.

Taw Hill Medical Practice was the subject of a planned, announced inspection by the Care Quality Commission last October, and was found to need improvement by inspectors.

This was despite the team being led by Dr Peter Crouch - who is also the chairman of the Swindon clinical commissioning group.

The report praised the Aiken Road centre for its care and responsiveness, but told it to up its game in its effectiveness and leadership.  Criticisms were also levelled for the safety of its procedures.

“Staff understood their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses,” the report said.

“However, when things went wrong, reviews and investigations were not thorough and lessons learnt were not communicated widely enough to support improvement.

“Risks to patients who used services were assessed but systems and processes to address these risks were not communicated to staff.

“Criminal records checks through the Disclosure and Barring Service were not always obtained and risk assessments to determine whether these checks were required were not undertaken.The practice did not have adequate arrangements in place to manage emergencies.”

Among the report’s key findings, it said patients were happy with the care and support provided by GPs and nurses, as well as their involvement in the decisions made about their health.

Emergency medicines and associated equipment were not checked to see if they were safe to use, according to CQC employees. Patients’ privacy and dignity were maintained and their cultural backgrounds and human rights were respected.

“Patients spoke positively about the effectiveness of their treatment and how the GPs and nurses enabled their health to improve or be maintained,” the report said.

“Patients told us they could access appointments at a time which suited them and the quality of their treatment was good.

“However some comments made by other patients using the NHS Choices website indicated they were dissatisfied with access to appointments.”

Among the recommendations was a review of recruitment processes, particularly in relation to obtaining criminal records checks. Risk assessments should be undertaken for employees who may act as chaperones for vulnerable patients. Emergency medicines also need to be monitored.

Taw Hill Medical Practice did not respond to requests from the Adver for a comment.