A Basildon GP surgery is failing to check whether staff are vaccinated, according to a report by the national watchdog for healthcare.

Dr M Aslam's Practice, also known as The Murree Medical Centre, in Rectory Road, Pitsea, was found to be failing to uphold proper systems to ensure staff were vaccinated, as per Public Health England (PHE) guidance.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the GP ‘good’ overall in a report published this week following an inspection in June.

However, the practice’s safety rating – one of the five inspection criteria – was downgraded to ‘requires improvement’ as inspectors called for staff recruitment files to be updated to show evidence staff were vaccinated.

Inspectors wrote: “Staff recruitment files did not evidence that the practice had checked that staff were vaccinated in line with current PHE guidance.”

Dr Sue Truman, practice manager at the centre, said the surgeries systems had been updated since the inspection to include vaccination status.

“We’ve got a new system called QCS which now updates all our regulations automatically, so we have quality assured the issue outlined in the report.

“The CQC inspector made it very clear what our remit is for filing, and we have now rectified it.”

The rest of the practice’s report reflected well on staff, leadership and the systems in place to ensure patients received quality care.

The CQC report stated: “Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. Performance for patients with a long-term condition and those experiencing poor mental health had improved since our previous inspection

“There was a structure in place that supported the use of data, feedback and other information, to review performance and promote quality improvement.

“The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.”

The report represented an improvement from the previous inspection in November 2019 when the practice was rated ‘requires improvement’ overall.