Nuffield Health Liverpool Fitness and Wellbeing Centre

Updated 28 July 2023

The registered provider is Nuffield Health which is a large corporate provider which operates a number of hospitals, fitness and wellbeing clubs and workplace wellbeing services across the country.

Nuffield Health Liverpool Fitness and Wellbeing Centre has three GPs and two physiologists. There is a manager who provides day-to day management of the service. There is also a general manager who is the registered manager with CQC. The general manager has responsibility for a further service operated by the provider. The team are supported by the registered provider who controls the governance and standards within its locations by providing policies, procedures and monitoring compliance with standards.

Nuffield Health – Liverpool Fitness and Wellbeing Centre is located at 1 Riverside Drive, Liverpool, Merseyside, L3 4EN. The service provides the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The service provides health assessments to patients aged 18 years and over and does not prescribe medication or treat patients. Referrals are made for patients whose test results warrant further investigation or treatment. Activities outside the CQC scope of regulation include physiotherapy, lifestyle coaching, exercise classes and gym facilities. We did not inspect or report on these services.

The clinic opening times are: Wednesday to Friday 8am to 4.30pm. The service is run from premises which include a suite of consultation and treatment rooms, a small waiting room and bathroom facilities on the ground floor.

How we inspected this service

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently. This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site.

This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements. This included: -

• Requesting evidence including documents relating to the management of the service from the provider prior to the inspection
• Reviewing patient feedback received by the provider
• A site visit

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 28 July 2023

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 7 November 2017 – no rating given)

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 Nuffield Health Liverpool Fitness and Wellbeing Centre on 6 June 2023 as part of our inspection programme. The inspection was carried out to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The service was inspected in 2017 but not rated. This was the first rated inspection of the service.

The service provides a range of screening and health assessments relating to the promotion of physical and mental wellbeing of people. Patients are provided with a comprehensive report of the findings of the assessment and referrals are made to other services or support services if required. This service is available to both corporate and fee paying private patients aged 18 years or over.

Nuffield Health – Liverpool Fitness and Wellbeing Centre is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities: Diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. For example, physiotherapy, lifestyle coaching and gym facilities do not fall within the regulated activities for which the location is registered. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

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 did not speak to any patients during the inspection but we reviewed feedback received by the provider from patients following their consultations. Feedback was positive and where feedback suggested improvements, changes were made.

Our key findings were:

• There was an holistic approach to assessing, planning and delivering care and treatment. This included the use of innovative approaches to care.
• Staff supported people to live healthier lives, including identifying those who needed extra support, through a targeted and proactive approach to health promotion and prevention of ill-health.
• The provider had systems and processes for monitoring and managing risks and safety.
• Best practice guidance was followed when referring or signposting patients for further care or support.
• Patients were offered appointments at a time convenient to them and treatment was offered in a timely manner.
• Patients received clear information about the assessments provided which enabled them to make an informed decision.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management and worked well together as a team.
• There was a clear strategy and vision for the service.
• The leadership and governance arrangements promoted good quality care.

We saw some elements of outstanding practice in the Effective domain:-

• The provider had implemented a number of national charitable flagship programmes to widen access for patients and ease the burden on the NHS. This included offering 12 week programmes such as the COVID-19 rehabilitation programme to support patients physically and emotionally and the joint pain programme to support patients to self manage chronic pain.
• The provider was working with NHS partners on a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of long term supported exercise intervention for men with advanced prostate cancer who had undergone treatment.
• The provider was also working with people in the local community to provide services to improve health outcomes for people.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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