A healthcare service in Lewisham has been told it is in breach of legal regulations following a visit from a watchdog.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors rated Modality Lewisham, situated on Stanstead Road, Lewisham, as "requires improvement" following a recent inspection.

Modality Lewisham is a healthcare practice that offers diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, maternity and midwifery services, family planning and surgical procedures, servicing around 37,000 patients.

Overall the care provider was found to be in breach of two legal regulations by inspectors.

One is the requirement to ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way, and the other is the requirement to ensure good governance in line with the fundamental standards of care.

The provider delivers care from three practice locations in buildings managed by NHS Property Services.

According to inspectors, "there were some risks that were not well managed, related to safety risks in the buildings which were managed by another organisation".

The inspection report also noted that "care and treatment did not always reflect prescribing standards and best practice".

It added: "A small number of patients had not received monitoring or appropriate follow up, in line with current evidence-based guidance."

READ MORE: Five best and worst GP surgeries in Lewisham 2023

While staff were found to deal with patients with kindness and respect, inspectors found that "people could not always access care and treatment in a timely way", despite attempts by the practice to improve access.

The report said that this attempt to improve access was not yet reflected in patient survey data or feedback.

The inspection also showed that "safety alerts were not always managed effectively to keep patients safe".

The inspectors said: "There were some risks that were not well managed.

"For example, medicines management processes for monitoring patients with long term conditions required improvement."

The conclusions in the CQC report are based on a combination of what the inspectors found during site visits, interviews with staff and the reviewing of patient records and practice data.

Despite requiring improvement overall, the report rated Modality Lewisham as "good" in two areas.

Inspectors found that "staff provided positive feedback about working at the practice which indicated that there was a good working culture".

They added: "Learning was shared effectively and used to make improvements."

The CQC has warned Modality Lewisham that it must report back with a plan to address the legal breaches, to ensure patient safety and care standards are met.

The inspectors also recommended that the provider should "continue to implement a programme to improve uptake for cervical screening and childhood immunisations," as well as continuing to improve the storage of recruitment and staff information.