Archived: The Third Space Medicine Limited

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 27 and 29 March 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was not providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the practice was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The Third Space Medicine is an independent medical practice located in Soho in the London Borough of Westminster. The practice offers services for adults and children.

Twenty seven people provided feedback about the service. The majority of feedback we received was positive about the staff and service offered by the practice.

Our key findings were:

• There was a system in place for acting on significant events. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• Some risks were generally well managed though improvements were needed in relation to safeguarding training and policies, calibration of clinical equipment, business continuity and paediatric equipment.
• There were arrangements in place to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse.
• The practice did not have access to historic recruitment and training information for staff.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines. However, the clinical audits carried out were not completed cycles.
• Patient feedback indicated that staff were respectful and caring and appointments were easily accessible.
• There was a clear vision and strategy and staff spoke of an open and supportive culture.

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

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the policies and procedures for safeguarding and business continuity.
• Review the systems in place to ensure the accuracy of fridge temperatures and the recording of safety checks for emergency equipment and medicines.
• Implement continuous clinical audit cycles to monitor and improve quality of the service.
• Review the process of checking the identity of patients.