Archived: Express Dispense

Updated 17 October 2017

Background

Express Dispense Ltd was established in 2010 and registered with the Care Quality Commission in March 2016. Express Dispense operates an online clinic for patients via a website (www.expressdispense.com), providing consultations and both NHS and private prescriptions.

A registered manager is 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.

How we inspected this service

Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector accompanied by a GP specialist advisor.

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service. During our visits we:

• Spoke with staff including the service manager, Superintendent Pharmacist, who is also the Registered Manager, and the principal GP.
• Reviewed organisational documents, including policies, staff personnel files and training records.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection to confirm that the provider had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection.

We asked the following three questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Why we inspected this service

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.

Updated 17 October 2017

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Express Dispense Ltd on 13 February 2017. We found the service was not providing Safe, Effective and Well-led services in accordance with the relevant regulations. However, we found they were providing Caring and Responsive services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Following the February 2017 inspection, we served a Warning Notice to the provider on the 2 May 2017 under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 which required the provider to become compliant by 2 June 2017. The full comprehensive report of the 13 February 2017 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Express Dispense on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 16 August 2017 to confirm that the provider had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection in February 2017. This report covers our review of the Warning Notice and findings in relation to those requirements.

Our key findings were:

• There were systems in place to confirm the patient’s identity and ensure the resulting delivery of medicines was appropriate. However, these should be improved to ensure they are effective.
• There were systems in place to ensure staff had the information they needed to deliver safe care and treatment to patients, including national guidance such as Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) safety alerts, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and General Medical Council (GMC) guidelines.
• The provider had a programme of ongoing quality improvement in place to monitor and improve the service provided to patients.
• There were processes in place to monitor the training needs of clinical staff and staff had received training relating to safeguarding, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and duty of candour.
• The provider had formalised staff meetings to ensure all staff were regularly updated with service developments.
• All staff, including the GP and pharmacists, had access to all policies, including the safeguarding policy.

We found the provider had taken actions to make improvements to meet the requirements of the Warning Notice and was now providing safe, effective and well-led services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The provider should assure themselves that their process for verifying patient identity is effective given the nature of the format of their consultations.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice