PrivateMedical.clinic Also known as FlyingMedicine Ltd

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 PrivateMedical.clinic on 16 March 2023. The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 18 June 2021, and this is the first inspection since registration. We carried out this first inspection as part of our regulatory functions.

The inspection was undertaken to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

PrivateMedical.clinic is a location, and the registered provider is FlyingMedicine Limited. PrivateMedical.clinic is a subsidiary of FlyingMedicine Ltd.

This service is registered with the CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some general 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.

PrivateMedical.clinic is registered with the CQC to provide 2 regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder, or injury

The services that are within scope of registration include:

• Private GP services which include blood tests, scan referrals, prescriptions for medicines, sick notes and general health and sexual health screening
• Vaccinations both for travel purposes, and for specific disease protection
• Immunisation for work purposes, such as Hepatitis B immunity

PrivateMedical.clinic carry out occupational medical assessments and issue medical certificates under their parent company FlyingMedicine Ltd. This includes aviation medicals for pilots and cabin crew which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The clinic owner is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC 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 directly to patients using the service on the day of the inspection. Feedback from patients on review websites was positive about the way staff treat people. The service had responded to these reviews.

Our key findings were:

• The service had systems and processes to keep patients safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• There were systems to assess, monitor and manage risks.
• Staff had the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment to patients.
• The service had reliable systems for appropriate and safe handling of medicines.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• The service monitored the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided and was actively involved in quality improvement activity.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge, experience, and training to provide an effective service.
• Patient consent was obtained and recorded.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness, dignity and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The service organised and delivered services to meet patient’s needs.
• The facilities and premises were appropriate and reasonable adjustments had been considered in the design of the interior of the building.
• Patients could generally access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There were systems and processes in place for reporting, recording and learning from significant events and complaints. However, no significant events or complaints had been noted by the service since it opened.
• The leader of the service had the capacity and skills to deliver quality sustainable care.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles, and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.
• There were effective processes for managing risks, issues, and performance.
• There were systems and processes for learning, continuous improvement, and innovation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Develop and strengthen policies and procedures in place to assure that an adult accompanying a child has parental authority, including children’s identity checks.
• Develop and strengthen policies and procedures in place to safeguard those in their care and recognise female genital mutilation (FGM) as abuse.
• Increase audit activity and use the findings to drive improvement in the quality of service for patients. For example, medicines prescribing audits, as prescribing numbers increase.
• Develop and strengthen policies and procedures in place for increasing accessibility and availability of service information for patients with language and communication barriers, to help them be involved in decisions about their care.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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