FAILINGS have been discovered at two Oxfordshire GP surgeries following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspectorate for health and social care institutions visited 900 GP surgeries across the country since April to test a new regime.

A third of those inspected were found to have failed one or more of the CQC’s essential standards.

In Oxfordshire, three surgeries were inspected and two, Botley Medical Centre and Dr Sichel and Partners, both in Oxford, failed one or more standard.

St Bartholomews Medical Centre in Manzil Way, Oxford, passed all the categories.

The CQC found Botley Medical Centre, in Elms Road, did not protect patients from abuse because staff were unable to describe the forms of abuse they could come across and how to report any concerns. Staff also had no record of being trained to identify and report abuse or neglect of patients.

The GP surgery, which was inspected in September, also failed the standard of keeping patients’ records accurate and safe because they were unavailable to inspectors during the visit.

They had been kept locked in the practice manager’s office, but they were on holiday during the inspection.

Dr Sichel and Partners, in Beaumont Street, was found not to have protected people from the risk of infection during an October inspection because it had not conducted a risk assessment for legionella within two years and its infection control policy was not specific to the practice.

All of Oxfordshire’s 43 GP surgeries will be inspected under the new regime, in which GPs and practice managers will conduct the inspections, over the next two years.