Archived: Trauma Clinic London Limited

Updated 20 March 2018

The provider, Trauma Clinic London Limited, is registered with the CQC as an organisation providing a clinical service for adults who are experiencing emotional or other psychiatric difficulties, usually as a result of serious adversity or traumatic experiences in their life. The service is provided from consulting rooms at 7 Devonshire Street, London, W1W 5DY. The provider is registered to carry on the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures.

Founding director, Dr Stuart Turner, is an experienced psychiatrist who specialises in trauma and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).Two experienced clinical psychologists who both have practising privileges at Trauma Clinic London Limited support him (the granting of practising privileges is a well-established process within independent healthcare whereby a medical practitioner is granted permission to work in an independent hospital or clinic, in independent private practice, or within the provision of community services). At the time of the inspection, one of the psychologists had been on long term sick leave and had not been present at the clinic since its current registration with the CQC in July 2016.

Trauma Clinic London Limited provides a range of healthcare services relating to mental health. Conditions treated include but are not restricted to: stress, anxiety, depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Treatments include but not restricted to: CBT, eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR), Narrative and other psychological treatments, and prescription medication.

Appointments for new patients usually take up to an hour and a half to allow for a detailed assessment. Subsequent consultations are usually either routine psychiatric follow up appointments, typically last 20-25 minutes, or longer psychological therapy sessions, typically lasting an hour. The frequency of these appointments is agreed with each patient depending on their needs and treatment plan.

The inspection on 16 November 2017 was led by a CQC inspector and included a GP specialist advisor.

Before the inspection we reviewed pre-inspection information submitted by the provider, requested by CQC.

During our visit we spoke with the lead clinician, Dr Stuart Turner, the clinical psychologist working under practising privileges and a representative of the building’s landlords, and reviewed personal care or treatment records of patients and also staff records.

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 20 March 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on Trauma Clinic London Limited on 16 November 2017 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.

Trauma Clinic London Limited provides a clinical psychological service for adults who are experiencing emotional or other psychiatric difficulties, usually as a result of serious adversity or traumatic experiences in their life.

The lead clinician 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.

Thirteen people provided feedback about the service. We received two completed Care Quality Commission comment cards and ten postings on our ‘Share your Experience’ website which were all very positive about the staff and services at the clinic. We spoke with one patient directly at the inspection who was also very positive about the staff and service.

Our key findings were:

• The clinic had systems to manage risk and provide safe care and treatment. The decision had been taken not to have emergency equipment and medicines available at the clinic based on risk assessment. However, there was no up to date documented risk assessment of this decision.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance. Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment. However, one of the clinical team was trained in first aid but not basic life support as required under national Resuscitation Council (UK) guidance.
• The provider reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided to ensure it was in line with current research and best practice guidance. Quality improvement action was taken as a result of peer review of the lead clinician’s clinical practice, and where appropriate, annual patient surveys of the work of both the lead clinician and clinical psychologist.
• Patients were treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect and they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the clinic within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• Access to the clinic was not available for people with mobility needs. However, the clinic provided home visits for consultations for patients unable to access the premises or advised prospective patients of alternative service providers.
• Arrangements were in place to support good governance. ;.
• The clinic engaged and involved patients and staff to support high-quality sustainable services.

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

• Review the risk assessment of the decision not to have emergency equipment and medicines available in the clinic and consider formally recording the rationale for this decision and action to mitigate the risks to patient safety.
• Review the basic life support training of the clinical psychologist to ensure the planned annual training is completed.
• Continue to review in liaison with the landlords, the implementation of the action plan from the recently completed health and safety risk assessment in relation to its impact on the clinic area.