Archived: Travel Clinic UK, Farnborough

Updated 21 November 2018

Travel Clinic UK, Farnborough is the only registered location of the registered provider Travel Clinic Farnborough Limited. The service provides a comprehensive travel service which includes travel advice, consultations and travel vaccines. Other vaccines are also available such as flu vaccines. The service has a free consultation option and fees are applied only to the vaccines given. Costs vary depending upon the type of treatment required. The service is also a yellow fever vaccination centre.

Travel Clinic UK, Farnborough is located at Unit 12 Farnborough Business Centre, Eelmore Road, Farnborough, GU14 7XA. The website address is: www.travelclinicuk.co.uk

The premises includes a consulting room, waiting area, warehouse and office space.

The core opening hours for services are 9am-6pm on a Monday and Tuesday, 9am-2.30pm Wednesday to Friday.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at the service on 20 September 2018. Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead inspector. The inspection team included a practice nurse specialist advisor and a CQC Assistant inspector.

Prior to the inspection, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service, such as any notifications received, and the information provided from the pre-inspection information request.

During our visit:

• We spoke with the registered manager, the director of the service, clinicians and a member of the administrative team.
• We looked at equipment and the room used for providing consultation and treatment.
• We reviewed the cold-chain storage of vaccines from point of delivery in the warehouse to administration in the consultation room.
• We reviewed records and documents related to the running of the service.

To get to the heart of service users’ 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 21 November 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 20 September 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.

Travel Clinic UK, Farnborough offers a travel vaccination service for service users living in the Farnborough area. Service users are signposted to the service either by their registered GP or by accessing the service’s own website. The service sees both adults and children for the assessment and administration of appropriate vaccines for the purposes of overseas travel as well as some private vaccines.

The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service registered with the CQC in February 2016 and this is the first CQC inspection of the service.

At the time of our inspection a registered manager was in place. 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 service users prior to our inspection visit. We received 19 comment cards, 17 of which were positive about the standard of care received.

Our key findings were:

• Service users were positive about the service they received.
• Clinicians regularly assessed service users according to appropriate guidance and standards.
• The provider was aware of, and complied with, the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
• Risks to service users were well-managed but the service had not sought assurances from their landlord related systems and processes in place to manage risks, such as Legionella, which the landlord was responsible for.
• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• There were effective systems to maintain a cold-chain storage of vaccines.
• Staff were up to date with current guidelines and were led by a proactive management team.

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

• Review how formal meetings are arranged with staff and how key points of meetings are communicated to staff.
• Review how audits are used to evaluate whether any changes that have been introduced have improved performance or quality of care by the service.
• Review how staff are kept up to date with relevant information regarding lead roles, for example, infection prevention and control.
• Complete the recommended actions identified in the provider’s recent Legionella risk assessment.
• Review oversight of all health and safety risk, for example, Legionella.