Updated 2 October 2019
The registered provider of the service is London Doctors Clinic Limited, which is an independent provider of private general practitioner services from 14 sites in central London.
Three of these 14 sites are registered as satellite sites to the main Waterloo location, which is at Mercury House, 117 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8UL. This is within the London borough of Lambeth. We visited this site as part of the inspection.
The three satellite sites are located at:
Barbican: 131 Aldersgate Street, London EC1A 4JQ.
Holborn: 233 High Holborn, London WC1V 7DN.
Marylebone: 136 Harley Street, London W1G 7JZ.
We visited the three satellite sites as part of the inspection. This was to review the premises only; no staff or patients were spoken with at these sites.
The remaining nine sites are registered as separate locations. Therefore, they were not included as part of this inspection.
The service provides general practice services which are available to any fee-paying patient. This includes adults and children of any age; however, most patients are adults. Services are offered on an appointment basis only; there is no provision of a walk-in service.
The service is registered with the CQC to undertake the following regulated activities:
- Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury.
- Diagnostic and Screening Services.
- Maternity and Midwifery Services.
Services provided include blood tests; certificates and medicals; sporting medical certificates; allergy treatments; immigration and visa medicals; travel services; and sexual health services.
London Doctors Clinic has approximately 70,000 patients registered across all 14 sites. These are patients that have been seen at least once across the organisation. Approximately 5,000 patients are seen across all 14 sites per month.
Of the 40 doctors that work for London Doctors Clinic Limited across all 14 sites, 10 work regularly at the Waterloo site and three satellite sites. All clinical staff are doctors; there are no nurses working at the service.
Each separate site has a Clinic Manager who also carries out site management, administrative and reception duties. Clinic Managers sometimes work across different sites across the organisation.
Service provision at all sites is supported by a corporate team which includes dedicated management, governance, quality assurance and administrative functions.
Services are generally provided from 8am to 8pm seven days a week. Actual appointment availability may sometimes vary at different sites, depending on doctors’ working patterns. Appointments can be made by using a central telephone number, or through an online booking system accessible through the organisation’s website.
Video consultations are available if requested, but the numbers of these provided across the organisation are currently very small. Telephone consultations and home visits are not available.
The service does not offer out of hours services on the premises, but on-call doctors are available to discuss ongoing care with existing patients outside of opening hours.
The main location and three satellite sites are located within serviced offices (Waterloo) or dedicated health centres or clinics (Barbican, Holborn and Marylebone). Each site is fully accessible with disabled access via lifts and/or ramps. Each site is located within a five minute or less walk from major London transport hubs.
The service website address is: https://www.londondoctorsclinic.co.uk
How we inspected this service
We reviewed information about the service in advance of our inspection visit. This included:
- Data and other information we held about the service.
- Material we requested and received directly from the service ahead of the inspection.
- Information available on the service’s website.
- Patient feedback and reviews accessible on various websites.
During the inspection visit we undertook a range of approaches. This included interviewing clinical and non-clinical staff, reviewing feedback from patients who had used the service, reviewing documents, examining electronic systems, and assessing the building and equipment.
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.