An Ipswich GP practice has been rated “inadequate” by health inspectors after they found patients were at risk of harm due to failures to act on safety assessments.

The Care Quality Commission report into Hawthorn Drive found the practice had not “undertaken the Health and Safety and Legionella risk assessment” to ensure patients’ safety. Legionella are bacteria that can cause legionnaire’s disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia.

The report, published today, also found “non-clinical staff were expected to clean body fluids without their Hepatitis B immunity behind checked”.

Despite the overall inadequate rating, the practice was rated “good” for being responsive to people’s needs and patients were said to have been treated with “compassion dignity and respect”

The practice has committed to make there required improvements to the services delivered to its 8250 registered patients.

The report, which has been published following a planned inspection in November 2016, recognises the desire of practice staff to make improvements to services. All patients who submitted comment cards to the CQC reported that the practice offers an excellent service and that staff are helpful and caring and treat patients with respect. The report praises the different ways people can access services and acknowledges the higher than national average patient satisfaction rate with the practice’s opening hours.

However, the report also highlights areas where improvements need to be made to ensure services are safe, effective and well led. Areas raised by the CQC include improvements in maintaining up to date patient contact information, a need to improve the health and safety of the surgery environment and the development of better practices to enhance the sharing of knowledge.

Sengapalli Ravichandran of Hawthorn Drive GP Practice said: “We are disappointed to have received this CQC rating and we are working hard to make the necessary changes and to further improve the services we deliver.

“We have in place a comprehensive action plan and we are confident we can speedily address the concerns raised in the report.

“GP practices are under ever-increasing pressure and we ask for the support and understanding of our patients over the coming months. We are committed to ensuring all our patients receive the very best care.”

Mark Shenton, chairman, NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group said: “We know how hard the staff work to deliver care to their patients. The CCG will fully support the practice over the coming months so that the issues raised in the report can be successfully addressed.”