August 29th 2025

By Ailsa Colquhoun

Fridges and CD storage shortfalls highlighted by Welsh regulator

Poor practice including medication fridge temperature checks not completed and inappropriate storage of controlled drugs have been highlighted by the Welsh GP regulator.

In a summary of inspection activity, Health Improvement Wales (HIW) also highlights the lack of (at least) weekly checks of emergency equipment and drugs. There are also practice-wide concerns such as:  

• Missing DBS checks
• Lack of staff immunisation records, particularly for hepatitis B
• Poor compliance with mandatory training, notably safeguarding
• Poor infection, prevention and control (IPC) arrangements, including expired sterile equipment, poorly cleaned clinical areas, and a lack of IPC audit activity
• Lack of patient and staff emergency call bells / alarms
• Undated or inappropriately authorised Patient Group Directions (PGDs)  
• Clinical waste not stored appropriately nor secured.

The report also notes that access to GP services continues to be an area of concern; over half of patients said they could obtain an urgent same-day appointment (62%) and could book a routine appointment when needed (63%). However, fewer patients told us they were offered their preferred type or method of appointment (49%).

Despite the service pressures, our survey positively concluded that staff continue to treat patients with dignity and respect (90%), with 80 per cent of patients telling us that they felt listened to and involved in decisions about their healthcare.