AN INVESTIGATION is being held into a GP practice which was shut down suddenly by inspectors.

It has been commissioned by NHS England following the decision to close Goodwood Court in Hove after urgent concerns were raised over patient safety.

NHS England medical officer James Thallon revealed the news during a Brighton and Hove City Council health and wellbeing committee.

Dr Thallon said the issue of whether more could have been done to predict the eventual outcome and avoid it happening would also be examined.

A report to the committee said the action taken by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in June was the first of its kind in the country.

It said NHS England, the city’s clinical commissioning group and the CQC all had concerns that the practice in Cromwell Road was failing to provide essential services to its patients.

The practice was inspected by the CQC on June 4,8 and 9.

The report said: “The CQC’s investigations confirmed the collective concerns that the practice was not providing an acceptable service to patients.

“The service was assessed as being so inadequate as to potentially represent a risk to patients so great that unprecedented and urgent action should be taken

“It is important to note that this action by the CQC was the first of its kind nationally and NHS England and the CQC will therefore be sharing learning from this case to inform the management of any future issues in the best interests of patients.”

Dr Thallon said he would normally have concerns about a practice being closed so quickly and the impact it would have on patients.

He said: “However given what we knew about the level of service being offered and the difficulties the practice was in at the time we looked at the service, it fell so far below the level that was reasonable that I felt the CQC was reasonable in the action that it took.”

Dr Thallon said the closure had caused a certain amount of distress and disruption to patients but overall he felt the changeover process had not gone too badly.

He said: “It was not perfect and there were some issues but we were fortunate there was another practice willing to step in and take over the patient list.”

Court papers obtained by The Argus revealed a catalogue of allegations made by the CQC, including patients being seen by an untrained doctor on the morning of an inspection and the discovery of out-of-date medication.

The thousands of patients being treated at Goodwood Court have now been transferred to the Charter Medical Centre in Davigdor Road.