A GP surgery has been rated as requiring improvement after inspectors found a hole in a wall, broken furniture and out of date medicine.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Manager Kaleem Haider says the CQC inspectors didn't take everything into accountManager Kaleem Haider says the CQC inspectors didn't take everything into account (Image: Archant)

Valence Medical Centre in Dagenham received the rating in all five areas assessed in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report published on Tuesday last week.

Inspectors noted that staff at the Valence Avenue surgery, which serves 5,420 patients, and the branch practice at Grovenor Road Surgery had received no infection control training and overheard complaints about “long” waiting times.

But practice manager Kaleem Haider claimed the report lacked objectivity.

“They came in and interviewed six or seven patients,” he said. “A doctor went over the 10-minute appointment limit for a patient with complex needs and saw them for 20 minutes so obviously some other patients weren’t happy. They [the CQC] weren’t taking this into consideration.”

Kaleem added that he oversees infection control at the practice, which is why staff had not been trained.

The inspection on September 15 found that minutes were not kept of safety reviews and on one occasion a patient was given a prescription made out in the previous patient’s name.

The report also revealed the practice has no induction process for newly trained staff, but acknowledged its efforts to reduce waiting times for the elderly by employing an in-house osteopath.

Inspectors praised the surgery’s mental health record, finding 94pc of patients with psychotic disorders had an agreed care plan in the year to September, higher than the 89pc national average.

Though Kaleem disagreed with the CQC’s overall rating, he said the surgery was taking steps to improve patients’ experiences.

“We’ve taken into account all the things raised and put processes in place to rectify them,” he said.