Archived: MASTA Travel Clinic - Manchester

Updated 15 July 2019

The head office for the provider MASTA Limited (Medical Advisory Services for Travellers Abroad) is based in Leeds. They have many pharmacy and nurse-led travel clinics located throughout England and Ireland and have been established for over 30 years. For this inspection we visited the location at MASTA Travel Clinic Manchester, based with the STA travel store, situated within Manchester city centre.

MASTA Travel Clinic Manchester shares facilities with another company. The consultation room is in the basement of the building only accessible by steep steps. The waiting area is shared with the other company and there are no toilet facilities. Any patient requiring disabled access is redirected by their customer service centre to one of MASTA Travel Clinic’s other locations.

Opening hours for the Manchester MASTA clinic are Tuesday to Friday and some Saturdays 10am until 6pm and 11am to 7pm on Thursdays. Patients could contact customer services when the clinic was closed. The service sees on average eight to ten patients per day.

MASTA Travel Clinic Manchester provides a comprehensive travel service including pre-travel assessments, travel vaccinations and travel health advice. All services incur a consultation charge to the patient. Treatment and intervention charges vary, dependent upon what is provided.

How we carried out this inspection

We inspected this service on 17 May 2019. During our visit we:

• Spoke with two members of staff.

• Reviewed documents and policies.

• Looked at the computer system for record keeping and staff information.

• Reviewed Care Quality Commission comment cards completed by people who had used the service.

The service provided background information which was reviewed prior to the inspection. We did not receive any information of concern from other organisations.

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.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector. The team included a specialist adviser.

Updated 15 July 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? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at MASTA Travel Clinic Manchester as part of our inspection programme.

MASTA Travel Clinic Manchester provides pre-travel assessments, travel vaccinations and travel health advice.

This service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (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. Those occupational health related services provided to clients under a contractual arrangement through their employer or government department are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, they did not fall into the scope of our inspection.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection visit. We received 27 comment cards, all of which were positive about the standard of care received.

Our key findings were:

• Systems were in place to protect people from avoidable harm and abuse. When mistakes occurred, lessons were learned.
• There were effective arrangements in place for the management of vaccines and medicines.
• The service had arrangements in place to respond to medical emergencies.
• MASTA Travel Clinic Manchester shared facilities with another company. The consultation room was in the basement of the building only accessible by steep steps. The waiting area was shared with the other company and there were no toilet facilities. The provider was aware of the limitations of the premises and any patient requiring disabled access would be redirected by their customer service centre to one of MASTA Travel Clinic’s other locations.
• Staff were aware of current evidence- based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patient survey information and CQC comment cards we reviewed indicated that patients were very satisfied with the service they received. Patients commented that they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
• Information about the service and how to complain was available.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure training certificates outline the level of training received.
• Ensure policies and protocols are accessible to staff in the event of the computer system not working.

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