Blackberry Clinic - Worcester

Updated 26 December 2022

Blackberry Clinic - Worcester provides Bupa health assessments, ear wax removal and specific health checks to adults. The service is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Depending on the health and wellbeing plan of the patient, following the assessment and screening process patients can undergo a consultation with a GP to discuss the findings of the health assessment results and any recommended lifestyle changes or treatment planning. The GPs also carry out specific health checks when booked by patients, these are mature health checks for patients aged 65 and over as well as screening and checking for breast, cervical, prostate and testicular cancer. Ear wax removal is provided by trained members of the health assessment team who are trained as healthcare advisors (HCAs) to offer this service. Full details of the services provided are available on the Blackberry Clinic website at www.blackberryclinic.co.uk

Blackberry Clinic – Worcester, is one of 14 clinics managed and overseen by a provider organisation called Blackberry Clinic Limited. The clinic is based in the city of Worcester and was set up in August 2021. A centre manager manages the day to day running of the clinic, the manager is also the CQC 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.

Three GPs are employed to work at the clinic, one of which is a lead GP; patients have a choice to been seen by a male or female GP at the clinic. There are also two health advisors (male and female) employed at the clinic. The leadership team at the clinic reports into a senior leadership team at provider level through Blackberry Clinic Limited. This includes quality, compliance and area management. The senior leadership team is overseen by an operational director and a clinical director.

Appointments at the clinic can be booked over the telephone, face to face and online via the providers website. There is a designated bookings team, facilitated by the provider, who manage the appointment booking systems. The clinic is open from 8am to 4pm on weekdays and at the time of our inspection, health assessments were available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Monday. Ear wax removal is available Monday to Friday.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we reviewed the information submitted by the provider about the services available at the clinic. During the inspection we spoke with a range of staff and viewed a range of information and documents, including medical records.

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 26 December 2022

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 Blackberry Clinic - Worcester as part of our inspection programme. Blackberry Clinic - Worcester provides Bupa health assessments, ear wax removal and other specific health checks to adults.

Our key findings were:

• There were systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety. The service operated clear and effective systems for safeguarding patients.
• Staff had the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment to patients. The provider had systems to keep clinicians up to date with current evidence based practice.
• Service performance was continuously monitored and analysed across a number of areas which included turn-around time for health assessments, referrals and failsafe systems for medical tests.
• The service learned and made changes to improve systems and processes following feedback from patients and staff.
• There was evidence of engagement and shared learning amongst the providers other clinics. There were clear lines of reporting and accountability in place at both local clinic and provider level.
• Patient feedback was positive about clinical care as well as timeliness of services. Feedback from staff was positive about the culture and working at the clinic.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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