A GP who says he has to pay out of his own pocket to keep his surgery running has been handed a ‘requires improvement’ rating by a health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission carried out the inspection of Dr John Cormack and the Greenwood Surgery in in Tylers Ride, South Woodham Ferrers, in November.

Inspectors found that safety at the surgery was inadequate and improvement was required to make the service effective and well-led.

The surgery was rated good for care and responsiveness to people’s needs.

The report, which was published on February 24, said there were insufficient systems for staff to report significant incidents, not all staff had undertaken safeguard training and not all staff had undertaken infection prevention control training.

Inspectors also found not all members of the clinical team had undertaken emergency life support training.

The report praised staff for being courteous to patients and treating them with dignity and respect.

Dr Cormack said the surgery was appealing the report which gives “a wholly distorted view of the practice.”

Dr Cormack said he had written to the CQC to warn them in October the surgery needed time to adapt to a new computer system and a number of patients who were moving from a surgery which was closing down.

He said: “We were then informed that CQC were going to visit in the first half of November - we sent a further three emails warning them of the risk to patients all which were ignored.

“The patient participation group has written a letter of complaint to the CQC mentioning that it was highly irresponsible of this organisation to knowingly put patients at risk by ignoring the warnings that had been sent.

“This is a very safe practice and the staff work extremely hard to circumvent the difficulties that arise from working in an underfunded surgery.

“None of our patients have come to any harm as a result of any of the points raised by the CQC inspector.

“In this practice we concentrate on what our patients tell us they want and need – but this does not always accord with what the CQC thinks patients ought to want and need.”