Archived: Dr Adrian Whiteson OBE

Updated 24 May 2019

Dr Adrian Whiteson OBE is an independent clinic in central London, which provides a person-centred healthcare service. The service is run by a single-handed private doctor and employs two part time secretaries. The service did not treat children at the time of our inspection. The service is renting space in shared premises.

Services are provided from: Suite 2 Welbeck Mansions, 35a Welbeck Street, London, W1G 8EZ.

The service did not have any website and is not advertising or seeking to register new patients. Most of the new patients are referred by the existing customers.

The clinic is open between 8.45am and 5.45pm Monday to Friday. The service is flexible to accommodate consultations between 7am to 8.45am and 5.45pm to 7pm Monday to Friday if required for working patients who cannot attend during normal opening hours.

The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of 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 in respect of the services it provides.

How we inspected this service

Pre-inspection information was gathered and reviewed before the inspection. We spoke with the doctor and a secretary. We looked at records related to patient assessments and the provision of care and treatment. We also reviewed documentation related to the management of the service. We reviewed patient feedback received by the service.

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 24 May 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr Adrian Whiteson OBE on 10 April 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

Dr Adrian Whiteson OBE is an independent clinic in central London, which provides a person-centred healthcare service. This is a single-handed private doctor service to adults only, which mostly provides annual health checks, follow-ups, diagnosis and referrals to other consultants. The service is renting space in shared premises.

The doctor is the 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.

Two patients we spoke with on the telephone were positive about the care and treatment offered by the service. Patients said they were satisfied with the standard of care received and thought the doctor was approachable, committed and caring. As part of our inspection, we also asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. All of the 22 comment cards we received were positive about the care received.

Our key findings were:

• The provider had specialised in offering the individualised annual health checks, which accounted for 90% of their workload.
• Assessments of the patients’ potential conditions were thorough and followed national guidance.
• The principal doctor was not responsible for managing patients with long-term conditions and they were referred to their NHS GP or other private consultants with their consent.
• Consent procedures were in place and these were in line with legal requirements.
• There was an infection prevention and control policy and procedures were in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• Systems were in place to protect personal information about patients.
• Safety systems and processes were in place to keep patients safe.
• Appointments were available on a pre-bookable basis. The service provided only face to face consultations.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• The service had gathered feedback from the patients.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Implement a monitoring system to assure regular oversight of water temperature checks carried out by the building’s management.

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