• Doctor
  • Urgent care service or mobile doctor

Archived: Escripts Marketing

Grand Union Studios 1.21, 332 Ladbroke Grove, London, W10 5AD (020) 3176 0022

Provided and run by:
Escripts Marketing Limited

Important: This service is now registered at a different address - see new profile

All Inspections

16 May 2017

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Escripts Marketing on 16 May 2017.

Escripts Marketing provides online medical services from several websites:

  • www.pharmadoctor.co.uk - provides consultation and prescribing services direct to patients for several treatment areas
  • www.uniclinix.com and www.etraveltool.com – provides on-line travel health and vaccination consultation and prescribing services to patients and signposting to pharmacies who are able to administer the vaccines. This service uses the ETool system developed by the provider.

We found this service was providing caring services but was not providing safe, effective, responsive and well-led care and treatment in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Our key findings were:

  • Information about services, including a number of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) was available on the website but there was no information on the prescribing doctor.
  • The provider did not always provide adequate information to patients regarding the medicines they were prescribed.
  • The service offered patients the option of sharing information about their treatment with the patient’s own GP; however, there was no encouragement to do so, or risk assessment in place to decide when this should be required.
  • The provider did not have an effective procedure to ensure safety alerts, such as those provided by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), were actioned appropriately.
  • The provider did not have systems in place to ensure clinical staff had access to relevant and current evidence based guidance and standards, such as National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) best practice guidelines and did not monitor that these guidelines were followed. We saw evidence of prescribing that was not in line with current guidelines.
  • The provider did not have adequate staff management procedures in place to ensure the checking and retention of records to confirm that clinical staff had the appropriate recruitment checks, training, qualifications, professional registration, appraisal and indemnity cover to carry out their role.
  • Clinical staff did not take part in the induction and annual appraisal programme.
  • Staff working remotely, including the prescribing doctor, did not have access to policies and procedures although copies of specific documents would be emailed to staff if requested.
  • The service did not have a clinical quality improvement programme in place. There were no clinical governance systems or processes to ensure the quality of clinical service provision.
  • The service had systems in place to keep people safeguarded from abuse.
  • There was a clear business strategy and business plans in place.
  • Staff we spoke with were aware of the organisational ethos and philosophy and told us they felt well supported and that they could raise any concerns.
  • The service encouraged and acted on feedback from both patients and staff.
  • There were systems in place to protect personal information about patients. The company was registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
  • There was a system in place to check the identity of patients. However, there were limited checks in place to ensure patients under the age of 18 were not accessing services covertly.
  • There were systems to mitigate safety risks arising from incidents and complaints, including analysis and learning. Improvements were made as a result of complaints.
  • The service learned from and made necessary improvements when things went wrong. The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

We identified regulations that were not being met:

The provider must ensure care and treatment are provided in a safe way:

  • The provider must ensure consultation questionnaires capture the information required to make accurate prescribing decisions prior to prescriptions being issued.
  • The provider must ensure information given to patients about the medicines they are prescribed is sufficient.
  • The provider must ensure that there is an effective process in place for identifying and verifying patient identification.
  • The provider must ensure they have effective systems in place to confirm patient safety alerts, such as those provided by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), are actioned appropriately.
  • The provider must ensure they encourage patients to give their consent to share prescribing information with their registered GP or risk assess the medicines prescribed to decide when this should be required in accordance with General Medical Council guidance.

The provider must ensure effective governance, including assurance and auditing systems and processes:

  • The provider must ensure they have effective clinical quality improvement systems and processes established to enable them to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the services provided.
  • The provider must ensure that policies and procedures are easily accessible for staff working remotely.
  • The provider must ensure they have an effective system in place to ensure treatment is monitored and delivered in line with relevant and current evidence based guidance and standards such as those produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the General Medical Council (GMC).
  • The provider must ensure that staff management procedures include the checking and retention of records to confirm that clinical staff have the appropriate recruitment checks, training, qualifications, professional registration, appraisal and indemnity cover to carry out their role.

You can see full details of the regulations not being met at the end of this report.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice