• Doctor
  • Independent doctor

Archived: 7 Day Healthcare

Overall: Inadequate read more about inspection ratings

142-146 Bellegrove Road, Welling, Kent, DA16 3QR (020) 8301 4664

Provided and run by:
Mistvale Limited

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Background to this inspection

Updated 19 August 2019

The registered provider, Mistvale Limited, provides private doctor consultation and treatment services and dental services from its location, 7 Day Healthcare at 142-146 Bellegrove Road

Welling Kent DA16 3QR. Mistvale Limited is CQC registered to provide the regulated activities of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Diagnostic and screening procedures and Surgical procedures. Other services are provided at this location, but we did not review these as they are out of scope of CQC regulations; these included intense pulse light (IPL) treatment for hair removal.

We carried out an announced inspection visit to the private doctor service at 7 Day Healthcare on 12 June 2019.

At the time of our inspection there were approximately 2000 patients registered in the GP service, with most of them also being registered with an NHS GP. GP services are primarily provided to adults; however, the service also provides treatments for minor illnesses to children age six

and older. The provider confirmed that 70% of their GP service are for employee medicals and travel vaccinations. The dental service provides private dental treatments to patients of all ages.

The service opening times are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 8.30am-7pm, Wednesday 8.30am – 5pm, Saturday: 9am-2pm, and a reception service is available on Sundays.

How we inspected this service

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service.

During our visit we:

  • Spoke with the staff - the doctor, registered manager, reception and administrative staff, and managers.
  • Reviewed a sample of the personal care and treatment records of patients.
  • Reviewed comment cards where patients shared their views and experiences of the service.
  • Reviewed service policies, procedures and other relevant documentation.
  • Inspected the premises and equipment in use.

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.

Overall inspection

Inadequate

Updated 19 August 2019

This service is rated as Inadequate overall. (Previous inspection – January 2018)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Inadequate

Are services effective? – Inadequate

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of the private doctor service at 7 Day Healthcare on 12 June 2019 as part of our inspection programme, and to follow up on breaches of regulations.

CQC inspected the service in January 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements to ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients, and to establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found they had been partly resolved.

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. At 7 Day Healthcare, private doctor and dental services are provided which are within the scope of CQC regulation.

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. At 7 Day Healthcare, intense pulse light (IPL) treatments are provided for hair removal, and there is a foot care service. These services are not within the remit of this Act and CQC regulation.

The nominated individual 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.

17 people provided feedback about the service; 16 people completed comment cards and we spoke with one person using the service.

Our key findings were:

  • The service received positive feedback about patients’ care and treatment experiences. The service treated patients with care and compassion and involved them in decisions about their care.
  • The service delivered services to meet patients’ needs that took account of their preferences, and they listened to and responded to concerns and complaints.
  • The service was not providing safe services as they had poor safety systems and processes, poor management of patient safety risks and a lack of reliable systems for appropriate and safe handling of medicines.
  • The provider had made improvements since our last inspection in the provision of effective care as they had better arrangements to ensure training and peer support for their staff team and had started carrying out quality improvement activities in relation to clinical care. However, they did not consistently work effectively with other organisations to deliver services.
  • The provider has partly made improvements in the arrangements to support good governance and management. But there were inconsistencies in the processes for managing risks.

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

  • Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients
  • Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

  • Review their arrangements to protect patients’ privacy and dignity in the minor surgery operations room.

I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.

Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care