The Care Quality Commission
  • Doctor
  • Independent doctor

Archived: Grabadoc

Overall: Insufficient evidence to rate read more about inspection ratings

394 Shooters Hill Road, London, SE18 4LP (020) 8319 3030

Provided and run by:
Grabadoc Healthcare Society Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See new profile

All Inspections

30 March 2017

During a routine inspection

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at GRABADOC Healthcare Society Limited on 30 March 2017. There was not sufficient evidence for us to rate the service; however our key findings across all the areas we inspected were as follows:

  • The governance arrangements in place were not effective in assessing, monitoring and improving the quality and safety of the services provided, and did not assess, monitor and mitigate risks to service users.
  • The provider did not ensure that persons providing care or treatment to service users had the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to do so safely.
  • Non clinical staff had been trained to provide them with the skills, knowledge and experience to perform their role effectively with the exception of providing formal chaperone training for staff expected to carry out the chaperone role.
  • The provider did not ensure the proper and safe management of medicines by evaluating and monitoring the prescribing of medicines.
  • The provider had not reviewed or assessed patient care needs and ensured care was delivered in line with relevant and current evidence based guidance and standards, including National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) best service guidelines.
  • The provider did not seek and act on feedback from patients to continually evaluate and improve services.
  • Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
  • The provider did not seek and act on feedback from relevant persons and other persons on the services provided in the carrying on of the regulated activity for the purposes of continually evaluating and improving services.
  • The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs, with the exception of facilities for hearing impaired patients.

The areas where the provider must make improvement are:

  • Assess services provided to ensure that the care and treatment of service users is appropriate and meets their needs.
  • Ensure that persons providing care or treatment to service users have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to do so safely, and maintain an effective record of this.
  • Ensure the proper and safe management of medicines by monitoring and evaluating prescribing.
  • Establish and effectively operate systems and processes to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of services provided and to assess, monitor and mitigate risks to service users.

The areas where the provider should make improvement are:

  • Consider ways to review clinical effectiveness and improve patient outcomes.
  • Review how patient feedback is collected, considering a patient survey.
  • Review facilities provided for patients with hearing difficulties to ensure their needs are met.
  • Review systems and process in place with other services to ensure that; clinical guidelines are followed, patients are effectively safeguarded from abuse, and that clinicians providing clinical services are appropriately trained, qualified and competent for the role.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

26 March 2014

During a routine inspection

Grabadoc Healthcare Society Ltd provides telephone advice for home treatment, face-to-face consultations, and home visits to people who need advice or treatment out of hours that can’t wait until the next available routine GP appointment. The service provides out-of-hours cover for almost 500,000 patients registered with GP surgeries in the London boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley.

During our inspection, we spoke with people who used the service and their relatives. They were very complimentary about their treatment and care. We also used comment cards to ask people for their views, and this feedback too was positive. We observed people being treated courteously and with respect.

Grabadoc used learning from incidents, patient surveys, compliments and complaints, and clinical audit to help to improve its service. Clinical leaders took responsibility for checking and ensuring GPs provided effective treatment and care, in line with recognised best practice standards and guidelines. The provider recruited GPs and staff with suitable qualifications, skills and experience to meet the needs of people using the service. There were also provisions to enable the diverse population to access the service.

People were protected from the risks associated with medicines and from unsafe and unsuitable medical equipment. Consulting rooms were clean and infection control procedures were followed to protect people from the risk of healthcare acquired infection.

There was effective clinical leadership of the organisation, with a focus on delivering high quality patient care. Governance arrangements and information systems were being strengthened further to enable the organisation to meet the challenges of changes within the wider NHS.