A doctors’ surgery which required improvement in its leadership has been rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission.

Clarkson Surgery in Wisbech was rated ‘good’ in whether their services are well-led, following the regulator’s latest review into the practice.

Inspectors in October 2019 gave Clarkson Surgery a positive report in areas such as whether it was delivering safe and effective services to patients.

In their previous visit, inspector Dr Rosie Benneyworth found that “medicines that had expired had not been replaced” and that “all significant events had not been appropriately reported.

“At this inspection, the practice demonstrated the required improvements had been made.”

Dr Benneyworth said there were “clear responsibilities, roles and systems to support good governance and management”.

All staff were reported to have “access and received updates on information, protocol changes, safety alerts and significant events.”

The inspection highlighted an improvement in how changes in managing risks, issues and performance was reported to staff.

“The development of the intranet had increased the communication with all staff members ensuring information was available, including minutes of meetings where staff may not have attended,” the review found.

Dr Benneyworth noticed that Clarkson Surgery had improved the way they “record and investigate significant events.”

One example the review noted was a patient unwell in the waiting room, where the situation was managed well.

The review said: “The team recognised they could improve some elements. For example, they have relocated the emergency equipment to a more centralised area.”

Clarkson Surgery was found to have recorded a lower uptake of women attending a cervical cancer screening within a specified time frame, which was below the England average of 70 per cent.

The review found that the practice paused cervical screening during part of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Cervical screening was resumed later in 2020 but due to staff shortages, the catch-up progress was slow initially,” the report found.

“However, they had recruited a new practice nurse and cervical smear taking is part of her training.”

Dr Benneyworth said Clarkson Surgery was aware of patients who were due their routine smear and “a plan was in place to ensure that cervical screening would be up to date and at target by the end of March 31, 2022.”