Elements Medical

Updated 12 October 2021

Elements Medical is based in a two storey building on the outskirts of Doncaster. The service comprises of a reception, office area and a variety of waiting rooms and clinic rooms.

The service is open Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm.

Slimming and obesity management services are also provided online

How we inspected this service

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information about the service, including information from the provider. We spoke to the manager, provider and four members of staff. We also reviewed a range of documents.

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 12 October 2021

This service is rated as Choose a rating overall. Good

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Requires improvement

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Elements Medical as part of our inspection programme to rate the service. Elements Medical is a private clinic which provides health screening, medical weight management, and dermatology.

This service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Elements Medical offered a COVID-19 testing service, this too fell outside the scope of our inspection.

The service had a 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.

On the day of inspection we were unable to speak directly to patients in order to gather their views of the service. However, we were shown feedback collected by the service. All were positive about the care and treatment received.

Our key findings were:

• People were provided with information and advice to support weight loss.
• The service had a clear vision and strategy and engaged well with staff.
• The premises was appropriate for the service delivered.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Implement a clinical audit system to review quality of care and patient outcomes.
• Develop effective systems and processes to monitor risk and performance.
• Make a clear record of the rationale when prescribing an off-label medicine, when a licensed medicines is available.
• Improve medicines storage so they are safe and secure.

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