Archived: Soho Square

Updated 19 August 2019

How we inspected this service

Soho Square is one of eight central London locations where the registered provider, London Doctors Clinic Ltd, provides private doctor treatments and consultations services. The service provides general practice services on a single visit basis (the service does not regularly manage long term conditions). All of the services provided are private and are therefore fee paying, no NHS services are provided at the site.

The provider’s Soho Square location is in a serviced office building at 18 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QL in the London borough of Westminster. The service is located on the first floor, which is accessible by a lift. The property is leased by the provider and the premises consist of a patient reception area, and five consulting rooms.

The service is open seven days a week from 8am to 8pm. Practitioners may be available out of these hours in the event that existing patients need to speak to clinicians, but the service does not offer elective care outside of these hours. The London Doctors Clinic Ltd is CQC registered to provide the regulated activities of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Diagnostic and screening procedures and Maternity and midwifery services.

The only clinical staff employed at the service are doctors. All clinical staff employed had previous experience working within the NHS. Patients could book appointments on the same day or up to a week in advance. The provider told us 40% percent of the patients attending were for minor illnesses and 60% were for notarising services (legal certification of fitness, such as required for certain occupations and activities). The provider said that 25% of patients returned to the service.

The service did not manage patients with long term conditions or immunisations for travel or childhood immunisations.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information requested from the provider about the service they were providing. During the inspection we spoke with GPs, the Registered Manager and reception staff. We also looked at documentation, undertook observations and reviewed completed CQC comment cards.

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 19 August 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. This was the first inspection of this service.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Soho Square on 18 June 2019 as part of our inspection programme. 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.

Soho Square provides private doctor consultations and treatment services at 18 Soho Square in the borough of Westminster in London. The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Diagnostic and screening procedures and Maternity and Midwifery services.

The Chief Executive Officer of The London Doctors Clinic Ltd is the 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.

Prior to our inspection, patients completed CQC comment cards telling us about their experiences of using the service. Four people provided wholly positive feedback about the service. Patients described staff as caring and professional.

Our key findings were:

• The service had suitable safeguarding processes and staff knew their responsibilities for safeguarding adults and children.
• There were systems in place to assess, monitor and manage risks to the premises and patient safety.
• The premises were clean and well maintained, we saw evidence of actions taken to prevent and control the spread of infections. An annual infection prevention and control (IPC) audit had been carried out.
• There were safe systems and processes in place for the prescribing and dispensing of medicines.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• There was a comprehensive programme of clinical audit that had a positive impact on the quality of care and outcomes of patients. Follow up audits demonstrated that learning and quality improvement had been achieved.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

• The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• There was a system for recording and acting on incidents, adverse events and safety alerts. The provider shared safety alerts with staff effectively.
• Patient feedback indicated that staff were caring and appointments were easily accessible.
• There was a clear vision and strategy and an open and supportive culture.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the need to have knowledge of and take necessary action on risk assessments and audits by third parties impacting the service.
• To risk assess storage of emergency medicines and equipment.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGPChief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care