Archived: Dottore London Clinic

Updated 28 August 2019

Dottore London is a private health clinic in central London which specialises in offering medical services to Italian nationals living in England, although all nationalities are welcome as patients. The clinic offers consultations for adults and children and provides the following specialities: gynaecologists, paediatricians, dermatologists, orthopaedists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, ear nose and throat (ENT) specialists, speech therapists,dietitians and psychotherapists. A complete list of services can be found on the clinic’s website: https://www.dottorelondon.com/

Patients can be seen by Italian and English-speaking doctors who deliver private consultations at the clinic during weekdays and the weekend as required.

There are four managing partners, three of which are clinicians and one, the service manager, is also 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.

There are a total of 31 consulting doctors who see patients at the clinic, all of whom are employed within the NHS. There are two non-clinical members of staff who assist with admin and reception duties.

The service is registered with CQC to deliver the regulated activities of: Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8pm. Home consultations can also be offered seven days a week depending on the doctors’ availability.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector. The team included a GP specialist advisor and a practice manager specialist advisor.

Updated 28 August 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 11 April 2018 – the provider was not rated at this stage in line with our methodology at the time.)

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 Dottore London on 27 June 2019 as part of our inspection programme 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.

Our key findings were:

• The clinic had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the systems in place supported learning and improvement.
• Staff involved patients with their procedures and treated them with kindness, dignity and respect.
• Petients found it easy to get an appointment at a time that was convenient to them.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• Leadership at the clinic were approachable had an ‘open door’ policy.
• Policies and procedures were regularly reviewed and accessible to all members of staff.
• Staff were valued and appropriately trained for their roles.

The area where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure up to date training certificates are kept in personnel files for all members of staff.

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