A Suffolk GP surgery is still failing to meet legal requirements say health inspectors amid "a good deal of improvement and progress" in the wake of being placed in special measures.

In July, Long Melford Surgery received an 'inadequate' rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) due to breaches of regulations in relation to care and treatment being provided in a safe way to patients.

In a follow-up inspection - conducted remotely via video calls and evidence analysis - in early September, the surgery was found to have made some improvements but had still failed to meet all the legal requirements issued as part of the special measures warning notice.

Key findings included the improvement of systems and processes in place to support the safe use of medicines, while progress had been made towards an improved system to manage patient safety.

The surgery was also found to be in the process of reviewing patients to ensure that regular, appropriate and comprehensive medicines reviews were undertaken.

However, inspectors said "there were still gaps in the system" and legal regulations were not being met as the practice did not ensure safe prescribing of medicines; there was a backlog of structured medicine reviews, meaning health officials "could not be assured that all medicines had been considered safely", and the practice did not have fully effective and embedded processes for monitoring patients’ health in relation to the use of some medicines and long-term conditions.

As a result, the surgery must now provide CQC with a report that highlights the action they will be taking to meet these requirements.

Scott Hanson, practice manager at the Long Melford Surgery, said: “This latest report recognises there has been a good deal of improvement and progress, in line with the CQC recommendations, although some of the change needs more time to embed and for staff to complete additional training.

“We are confident that the work we have done and continue to do will make a speedy and positive difference to services. We thank our patients, staff and the local community for their continued support.”