The future of a GP surgery in Dagenham is "undecided" after the health regulator put it into special measures.

Care Quality Commission rated Becontree Medical Centre 'inadequate' overall - its lowest rating - after visiting the Becontree Avenue site in August.

Inspectors said the surgery's leaders were unable to show they had "the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care".

NHS North East London said Dr Ravali Goriparthi "has decided to hand back the contract for delivering services at the practice" following CQC's inspection.

A spokesperson added: “To ensure patients have access to safe, high quality care, services at the practice will be temporarily provided by Broad Street Medical Centre until its future can be decided.

"We will work closely with the new management team on an action plan to address the issues raised by CQC as quickly as possible."

Patients will be told of the changes and should book and attend appointments at Becontree Medical Centre "as usual", they said.

CQC rated the medical centre 'inadequate' across three of its five main inspection criteria - safe, effective and well-led.

Inspectors graded it 'requires improvement' across caring and responsive.

They wrote in a report: "Senior staff in the practice team could not demonstrate they had a comprehensive oversight of all the challenges to delivering care within a primary care setting or that they had an effective action plan to address those challenges."

The surgery declined to comment when contacted for a response by the Post.

The report said inspectors were "not assured" that "safeguarding systems and practices were fully developed and implemented in a way that kept people safe."

CQC found "significant gaps" in safeguarding policies for children and vulnerable adults.

Inspectors wrote: "We reviewed evidence that patients were not always contacted to discuss a change regarding their care.

"For example, we saw alerts in several patient records asking the next person to open the patient’s record to inform them of a change with their medication, a change in dose and that a specific medicine had been stopped completely, without adequate explanation or communication with the patients concerned."

The surgery was put into special measures and will be inspected again within six months.

If insufficient improvements have been made, CQC "will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service".

Dr Goriparthi also manages Tulasi Medical Centre which was suspended by the regulator last month after a damning inspection.