Archived: DoktorABC (Skymarketing Ltd)

Updated 29 August 2022

Background

DoktorABC was registered with the Care Quality Commission in December 2021. The service uses a platform which connects patients with doctors and pharmacies online. DoktorABC follows standards of the telemedicine industry and has a partner mail order pharmacy which is also registered in the UK. The online doctors on the DoktorABC platform are UK certified and follow the prescribing guidelines set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British National Formulary (BNF).

Patients can receive medical advice online, obtain a prescription and have the medicine shipped directly to their home address. The services offered are limited to men’s and women’s sexual health services, hair loss, travel and contraception.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. During this inspection we spoke to the Registered (service) Manager and the administrator of this small service.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we 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 29 August 2022

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We rated this service as Good overall. This was the service’s first inspection.

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? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at DoktorABC on 22 July 2022 as part of our inspection programme. The service provides patients with a platform to purchase a medicine for a limited number of ailments such as men’s and women’s sexual health, contraception and travel medicines.

At this inspection we found:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients could access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement within the organisation. However, the service was in its infancy and improvements were required to ensure consistent processes were in place for example when monitoring the quality of the service and when recruiting more staff when the service expanded.

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

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to expand processes for auditing prescribing, anti-microbial stewardship and clinical documentation.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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