Archived: Sentinel Healthcare South West CIC

Updated 15 July 2019

Sentinel Healthcare South West CIC operates from headquarters at Plymouth Science Park, 6 Research Way, Plymouth, PL6 8BU.

Sentinel Healthcare are registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• diagnostics and screening services
• treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• surgical procedures.

Sentinel Healthcare South West Community interest Company (CiC) is owned by shareholders of General Practitioners and practice managers in Plymouth, West Devon and South Hams. Sentinel Healthcare provides services for patients and medical professionals in Devon and Cornwall.

The organisation is funded by the NHS and privately. NHS patients are referred by their GPs and private patients self-refer.

Sentinel Healthcare work with the local clinical commissioning groups, NHS England and other organisations. In addition to providing private minor surgery services it has a standard NHS contract. This is a contracting route available to enable primary care organisations (PCO) to commission or provide primary medical services within their area.

Services provided on behalf of NHS services include: providing diabetic education, support services for GP practices and the facilitation of healthcare apps for patients with long term conditions.

Private services offered included: minor surgery no longer provided on the NHS.

The organisation also provides training and development opportunities for health professionals.

The organisation is led by a strategic director and operations director who coordinate a team of up to 80 administration and clinical staff. Clinical staff include GPs with special interest (GPwSI), extended scope practitioners (physiotherapists), podiatrists, occupational therapists, hospital consultants, osteopaths, nurses, practice nurses and health care assistants.

The organisation rent clinical and office space from external landlords. Sentinel Healthcare provides clinical services in 11 locations that are close to the patient population reducing the need to visit large acute hospitals in the locality. The clinical sites include community hospitals, GP practices and Derriford hospital. The organisation also rents other locations for health education and non-clinical purposes. These include community centres, libraries, village halls and hotel conference facilities.

Office hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

How we inspected this service

As part of the preparation for the inspection, we reviewed information provided for us by the service. In addition; we reviewed the information we held on our records regarding

this provider. During the inspection we utilised a number of methods to support our judgement of the services provided. For example, we spoke with the providers and staff, looked at the clinical systems and reviewed documents relating to 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 15 July 2019

This service is rated as Choose a rating overall. (Previous inspection 19/09/2018- not rated)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive at Sentinel Healthcare South West CIC on 14 May 2019, as part of our inspection programme.

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.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of diagnostics and screening, minor surgery and the treatment of disease, disorder and injury.

The service was accessible to people who were referred to use it. Some services were provided on behalf of NHS services. For example, providing diabetic education, support services for GP practices and the facilitation of healthcare apps for patients with long term conditions. Some services were private. For example, minor surgery no longer provided on the NHS.

The service had a registered manager. A registered manager is a 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.

We were unable to speak with patients on the day of the inspection but looked at comments received by the service on the activities carried out. All comments were positive.

Our key findings were:

• There was an effective system for reporting and recording significant events. The service had systems in place to identify, investigate and learn from incidents relating to the safety of patients and staff members.
• Complaints had been dealt with in line with the regulations.
• Staff told us that their morale was good, that they felt supported by the leadership and involved in decision making at the service.
• Regular team meetings were held and there was an online training system for staff.
• There were systems, processes and practices in place to safeguard patients from abuse.
• Staff had the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to deliver the care and treatment offered by the service.
• Procedures were safely managed and there were effective levels of patient support and aftercare advice.
• The service had processes in place to securely share relevant information with others such as the patient’s GP, NHS organisations, safeguarding bodies and private healthcare facilities.
• The service encouraged and valued feedback from service users via in-house surveys and the website.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

Review arrangements for recruiting staff to make sure all required information is available.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGPChief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care