A GP practice has been told it must improve by a health watchdog after 16 significant incidents were recorded.

Dr P K Mohanty and Partners, at Witham Health Centre, was rated as requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission after an announced inspection in April.

The practice, which was not rated before, recorded 16 significant incidents in a year, including a missed cancer diagnosis.

As well as the missed diagnosis, the incidents included a patient falling while on the premises, an electrical failure and a medicine error.

The CQC report, published in September, said: “There were processes for handling repeat prescriptions; however we found the review of high risk medicines to be less effective.

“We undertook a search for a high risk medicine that required regular blood tests and we found the results were inconsistent.

“Of the 12 records reviewed, we found that four patients had received blood tests.

“When we checked the emergency medicines available we noted three recommended medicines were not present.

“There was no risk assessment to identify why they were not present.”

Information from completed comment cards showed some patients felt some staff did not always explain things clearly or give them time to respond or help them to understand.

But results from the national GP patient survey showed patients felt they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect.

The report added: “There was some evidence of learning being shared with staff members but there was a lack of learning being shared across all staff groups and inconsistent recording.

“We acknowledge that since the date of inspection, the practice has informed us that they have improved their systems.”

The practice must now stock all recommended emergency medicines or complete a risk assessment if they are not required, ensure patients taking high-risk medicines are reviewed in line with guidance and ensure relevant staff have received feedback.

Dr P K Mohanty and Partners was unavailable for comment.