Two GP surgeries are closed by court order ‘with immediate effect’ for first time in East Anglia, The Eastern Daily Press reported.

Two doctors’ surgeries, with more than 5,000 registered patients in the Lowestoft area, have closed as urgent legal action was taken following “serious concerns about the service and the risks it presented to patients”.

The CQC has cancelled the registration of Oulton Medical Centre and its satellite branch of Marine Parade Surgery, a first “urgent cancellation of a GP’s registration” in Suffolk, Norfolk or Cambridgeshire, under a Section 30 order of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

What does this mean for GPs?
This is not new to those operating care homes and dentists who are not given second chances in such cases. So far, GPs have been isulated from strict measures and treated with kid golves by the CQC, thanks largely to the influence of the BMA and GMA.

This was the result of an unannounced inspection in March 2015, when the services were rated inadequate and placed into special measures. In a follow up visit in October the CQC said: “Further concerns were identified in relation to a lack of clinical leadership and a failure to learn from errors, meaning patient wellbeing was placed at risk.”

Editor's note:-

Amazingly, the PPG co-ordinator said "the closure came as as a surprise and a shock to the patients",s o once again we see a practice deemed perfectly adequate by the patients as well as the PPG, and yet the CQC find things that demand immediate closure.
This is not a criticism of the CQC, far from that, it demonstrates that patients are often ill informed about what constitutes a safe practice.

This is a lesson for practices not to be lulled into a false sense of security by positive comments by patients as they might simply be impressed by great service rather than great care.