Archived: The Medical @ Temple Quay

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Medical @ Temple Quay on 15 January 2020 as part of our inspection programme and to follow up on breaches of regulations.

CQC inspected the service on 21 May 2019 and told the provider to make improvements regarding Regulation 17- Good governance. We also identified areas where the provider should make improvements which were:

• Conduct patient surveys to assess patient needs.
• Improve systems for the identification of significant events to support learning.
• To update the website relating to patient eligibility as soon as possible.

We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found these had been resolved.

The Medical @ Temple Quay is a private doctor’s consultation and treatment service.

This service is registered with 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 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Services at The Medical @ Temple Quay (The Medical) are provided to patients under arrangements made by their employer/ a government department/an insurance provider with whom the servicer user holds an insurance policy (other than a standard health insurance policy. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, we were only able to inspect the services which are not arranged for patients by their employers/ a government department/an insurance provider with whom the patient holds a policy (other than a standard health insurance policy).

One of the GPs working for the provider was 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for Care Quality Commission comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. We received feedback about the service from 35 patients. All the respondents commented positively about their experiences, stating they received a high level of service and were treated with care and consideration.

Our key findings were:

• The service had made improvement to their processes to ensure risks to patients were monitored.
• Systems and processes had been improved to ensure oversight of safety alerts.
• There was a programme of quality improvement to monitor prescribing practices.
• Improvements had been made to the process for communicating with other services regarding patient care and safety. However, we found that this needed further improvement.
• Systems for obtaining and recording of consent had improved and embedded.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The service organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• There were systems in place to signpost patients to other appropriate services if the service could not meet their needs.

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

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to embed quality improvement activities to monitor prescribing especially those relating to medicines which could potentially be misused and appropriate treatment with antibiotics.

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

This service is rated as Requires Improvement overall. (Previous inspection December 2017)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires Improvement

Are services effective? – Requires Improvement

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Inadequate

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Medical @ Temple as part of our inspection programme

The Medical @ Temple Quay is a private doctor’s consultation and treatment service.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some 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. Services at The Medical @ Temple Quay (The Medical) are provided to patients under arrangements made by their employer/ a government department. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore we were only able to inspect the services which are within the regulatory parameters for which the provider is regulated.

One of the GPs working for the provider was 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for Care Quality Commission comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. We received feedback about the service from 38 patients. All the respondents commented positively about their experiences, stating they received a high level of service and were treated with care and consideration.

Our key findings were:

• Policies and processes were not always embedded in practice.
• Oversight of staff training was not properly maintained.
• Quality improvement activity was not comprehensive.
• Risks to patients safety was not always appropriately monitored.
• Patients were treated with dignity and respect.
• Services met patients’ needs.

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:

• Conduct patient surveys to assess patient needs.
• Should update their website relating to patient eligibility as soon as possible.
• Ensure there is a system in place to retain medical records in line with Department of Health and Social Care guidance.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).