Archived: Richmond Medical Centre

Updated 6 June 2019

The provider for the service is Primary Care Sheffield Limited who is contracted by the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) to provide a non scalpel vasectomy service carried out under local anaesthetic from Richmond Medical Centre which is located at 462 Richmond Road, Sheffield S13 8NA. The provider registered with the Commission in August 2017 to provide the regulated activity surgical procedures at this location. The service has been operating since 2012 under a different provider. The new provider continues to use the same clinical staff and premises.

GPs in the Sheffield area can refer patients on the NHS into this service.

There is one GP who is trained to provide this procedure. Two practice nurses and two healthcare assistants trained in aseptic techniques assist the GP. Administration staff working at Primary Care Sheffield Limited arrange the pre-assessment appointment for the patient on receipt of a referral and complete the letter to the patient’s own GP post procedure.

In 2018, 206 patients were counselled for the procedure and 186 procedures were carried out.

Appointments for pre-assessment and counselling are on Thursdays and the procedures are carried out on a Friday.

The service was inspected on 5 April 2019. Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector. The team included a CQC GP specialist advisor.

During the inspection we spoke with people using the service, the provider, staff working in the service and reviewed documents relating to the management of the service. We received 36 CQC comment cards from patients who attended the service in January and March 2019.

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 6 June 2019

This service is rated as  Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Richmond Medical Centre as part of our inspection programme of a new provider registration for the service. This was the first rated inspection for the service that was registered with CQC in August 2017.

The service provided non scalpel vasectomies for the purpose of sterilisation under local anaesthetic only.

The registered provider for the service was Primary Care Sheffield Limited who were contracted by the Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to provide the service to patients of Sheffield on the NHS. The registered provider had a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service was run.

We spoke with two patients on the inspection day and received 36 CQC comment cards from patients who attended the service in January 2019 and March 2019. Feedback from patients was overwhelmingly positive about the service. They told us they appreciated the continuity of care of seeing the same staff throughout the process. They felt listened to and able to ask questions. They told us the GP was informative and reassuring and their dignity and respect had been considered which they told us they appreciated.

Our key findings were:

• The provider organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.
• The provider had systems and processes for managing risk.
• Staff were proud of the work they did and of the quality of service they provided.

We saw the following outstanding practice:

• There was a strong, visible person-centred culture. Staff were highly motivated and inspired to offer care that was kind and promoted people’s dignity.
• Patient feedback was excellent.
• Patient feedback and data analysis were used proactively by the GP lead and provider to identify opportunities to drive improvements in quality of care and patient experience.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take action to include safeguarding children training updates as part of the quality assurance overview checks.
• Take action to update the clinical protocol to include the procedure staff take if the third post operative semen sample is reported positive.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care