Archived: St Bernards Practice

Updated 27 July 2018

St Bernard’s clinic operates from Southall in West London. The service also has a satellite clinic based in Hounslow. Both locations are based within GP practices and have full access to all the equipment that is available to the GP practice, including emergency equipment.

The clinic has been registered since 2015 to provide diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The clinic currently has a clinical lead GP, an administrative manager who is the nominated individual, and a specialist travel nurse. The opening times of the clinic are, Tuesday and Thursdays 2:30pm- 6:30pm. The service offers a 24-hour dedicated line for clinical advice. This service was available to patients via mobile access. However, if the query was received by a non- clinical staff it was the service`s policy that this was passed to clinical staff who could provide advice.

The name and address of the registered provider is:

5 William Close

Southall

UB2 4UP

02088149644

The inspection team consisted of a lead CQC inspector and a GP specialist advisor with travel vaccines experience and expertise.

On the day of the inspection the team interviewed staff, undertook observations in the clinic and reviewed documents.

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 27 July 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 18 May 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 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 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 service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Globetrotters Medical Services Ltd offers travel health advice and vaccination services to patients seeking advice on travel and non- travel related medication and vaccinations. The clinic is also a registered yellow fever vaccination centre.

The service is based in Southall and offers satellite services from Hounslow. During this inspection we visited the Southall site were the service is predominantly run from. The service in Southall has a full use of a suitable private consultation room located within the St Bernard’s Medical Practice.

At the time of our inspection the service staff comprised of a GP who is the service’s registered manager, a specialised travel vaccines nurse who was self-employed and a nominated individual. On the day of the inspection we meet with the GP and the specialist nurse.

The clinic’s opening times were Tuesday and Thursday 2:30pm-6:30pm. When the clinic is closed there is a mobile phone that is answered by non-clinical staff. If queries relate to a clinical issue they are forwarded to clinical staff who are contacted via an instant mobile application set up by the service.

Approximately five to ten consultations per month are carried out and these increase to approximately 100 during busy travel periods in the summer.

The cost of the service for patients is advertised on services website. Leaflets at the practice contain detailed information for patients. Patients attending the clinic phone in to discuss their care, and information about prices is given at this stage as well.

The GP is the organisation’s 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.

Our key findings were:

• There was an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Risks to patients were always assessed and well managed, including those relating to recruitment checks.
• The clinic had many policies and procedures to govern activity.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The service proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

• Develop quality assurance processes to include two cycle clinical audits to drive improvement.