The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • Independent doctor

Solutions 4 Health- Hereford

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

15 St. Owen Street, Hereford, HR1 2JB 07941 898810

Provided and run by:
Solutions 4 Health Limited

All Inspections

14 June 2023

During an inspection looking at part of the service

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced focused inspection at Solutions 4 Health on 14 June 2023 to follow up on breaches of regulations. Following our previous inspection on 14 April 2022, the service was rated ‘Requires Improvement’ for the key questions of Safe, and Well Led; and ‘Good’ for Effective, Caring and Responsive. The practice was rated ‘Requires Improvement’ overall. We issued a Requirement Notice to the practice requiring it to improve the governance of its service. We checked these areas as part of this focused inspection and found these had been resolved.

The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Solutions 4 Health on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Solutions 4 Health is a level three consultant lead sexual health service, which provides screening and diagnostic services for sexual health related conditions; treatment for sexual health conditions and a variety of contraception including long acting reversible contraception (LARC) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - a medicine taken to prevent contracting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The Director of Public Health & Lifestyle Services is the 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.

Our key findings were:

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected

• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and

• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

At this inspection we found:

  • The service had effective systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety.
  • There were reliable systems in place for appropriate and safe handling of medicines.
  • Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care.
  • There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.
  • There were clear and effective processes for managing risks, issues and performance.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services

14 April 2022

During a routine inspection

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Solutions 4 Health- Hereford. We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Solutions 4 Health Hereford as part of our inspection programme.

Solutions 4 Health is a level three consultant lead sexual health service, which provides screening and diagnostic services for sexual health related conditions, it provides treatment for conditions and a variety of contraception including long acting preventative contraception or (LARC) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This is a medicine taken to prevent contracting HIV.

The Director of Public Health & Lifestyle Services is the 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.

29 people provided feedback about the service, this was obtained through Solutions 4 Health comment cards and online reviews which were completed by patients who accessed the service. The feedback was positive about the treatment and care they received and with many complimenting the caring nature of the staff and many stating that they were very likely to recommend Solutions 4 Health to others.

Our key findings were

We based our judgement of the quality of care at this service on a combination of:

• what we found when we inspected

• information from our ongoing monitoring of data about services and

• information from the provider, patients, the public and other organisations.

At this inspection we found:

  • Leaders had established policies, procedures and activities to ensure safe running of the service; however these were not effective or operating as intended. This was evident across systems for monitoring the storage of vaccines, emergency medicines and consultation equipment including test strips and items used for examination.
  • The provider did not have detailed fire plans in place to ensure the safe evacuation of the building in the case of an emergency, we also found that fire evacuation drills were not being carried out.
  • Patients and staff were at risk of harm as systems were not in place or practised to ensure risk was effectively mitigated.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Explore systems to ensure all environmental risks were being reviewed and mitigated.

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

Name of signatory

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (area of responsibility)