Background to this inspection
Updated
26 April 2018
The service Victoria is located at:
Portland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5RS
Victoria provides a private general practice service. It provides most of the services offered at a NHS GP practice such as blood tests, referral to a specialist doctor and health screening to both adults and children. In addition it offer sporting medical certificates, imaging, work, immigration and visa medicals, weight management, and after travel health checks.
The provider London Doctors Clinic Limited has six other locations registered with CQC which are located across central London. The locations are:
-
Fleet Street
-
Kings Cross
-
London Bridge
-
Soho Square
- Paddington
- Waterloo.
The premises consists of two consultations rooms and office/receptionist area located on the 19th floor of a service office building. The premises has a lift and disabled access.
The provider is the medical director of London Doctors Clinic that employs 12 doctors to work across all of the sites. The Victoria site during hours of opening has one doctor who is supported by a clinic manager.
Patients can walk-in, or book an appointment by telephone, e mail or on line. The service is open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm for pre-booked appointments.
Why we carried out this inspection
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Victoria on 18 March 2018. We carried out a comprehensive inspection of this service under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider continues to meet the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service.
How we carried out this inspection
This inspection was led by a CQC inspector, with support from a GP specialist advisor.
During our visit we:
• Spoke with the provider, practice manager and nurse.
• Reviewed documents.
• Reviewed 12 CQC comment cards where patients shared their views and experiences of the service.
To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:
• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?
These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.
Updated
26 April 2018
We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?
Our findings were:
Are services safe?
We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services effective?
We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services caring?
We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services responsive?
We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
Are services well-led?
We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Victoria provides a private general practice doctors clinic. The clinic offers similar services to those offered at a NHS GP practice such as blood tests, referral to a specialist doctor and health screening. In addition, it offers sporting medical certificates, imaging, work, immigration and visa medicals, weight management, and after travel health checks.
The medical director is the registered manager. A registered manager is the person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
As part of our inspection, we reviewed 12 Care Quality Commission comment cards where patients made extremely positive comments about the service. They described the service as very professional, they stated the staff were welcoming and professional and the service as good and excellent.
The provider invited patients to complete an online feedback form. From the 1 January to the 19 March 2018 they had received 26 feedback forms where the patients rated the doctors from one poor to five excellent, 22 rated the doctor at five and three patients rated them as four. Many described the service as professional, friendly and efficient. Where a patient had given a low score the provider dealt with this as a complaint.
Our key findings were:
- The clinic had clear systems to keep patients safe and safeguarded from abuse.
- The clinic had reliable systems in place to prevent and protect people from a healthcare-associated infection.
- The clinic had arrangements in place to receive and comply with patient safety alerts, recalls and rapid response reports issued.
- The clinicians assessed patients’ needs. This included their clinical needs and their mental and physical wellbeing.
- The provider advised patients what to do if their condition got worse and where to seek further help and support, such as the patient’s NHS GP.
- Staff had the necessary skills and training to carry out their roles.
- The practice obtained consent to care and treatment in line with legislation and guidance.
- Staff recognised the importance of patients’ dignity and respect.
- The provider had a complaints process in place and we saw the staff had responded to complaints.
- The provider understood the challenges to the service and what actions they had to take to address them.
There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should: