Updated 1 March 2024
East Shore Partnership is a GP practice that provides a range of primary medical services at two sites, St Cuthberts Church, Hayling Avenue, Portsmouth, PO3 6BH, otherwise known as The Baffins Surgery and a branch site at Milton Road, Portsmouth, PO3 6DW, otherwise known as Milton Park Surgery. East Shore Partnership is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities; diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, midwifery and maternity services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. This announced assessment was undertaken between 11 and 14 March 2024. We carried out our on-site visit on 12 March 2024. We undertook this assessment in response to concerns we received about the practice’s hot water systems and staff culture. During our assessment, we found concerns around the management and safety of the hot water systems, the risk of exposure to legionella as well as the risk of exposure to infections as suitable records of staff immunisations had not been maintained. We found a lack of effective governance systems and processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service. There was a lack of regular documented clinical supervision for non-medical prescribers instigated by supervisors, including audits of prescribing. We identified gaps in recruitment records for staff members we reviewed during our on-site visit. Clinical competencies were not obtained at the time staff were recruited to ensure staff were suitably qualified for the role. These concerns resulted in 3 breaches of regulations in relation to safe care and treatment; staffing and good governance. However, we found staff were able to raise concerns and there were processes in place for the practice to investigate and appropriately respond to complaints. You can find more details of our concerns in the evidence category findings.