Archived: London Prevention Clinic

Updated 1 November 2018

London Prevention Clinic is an independent health service based in Canary Wharf, London. The service offers blood tests, ECGs, physical examinations, health screenings and check-ups for adults over the age of 18, who primarily come from Brazil. The service also provides mammography and ultrasound (abdominal, breasts, pelvic).

The service registered with the CQC in June 2017 to provide the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; and treatment of disease, disorder and injury.

The service is open from Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm and Saturday from 9am to 1pm.

The lead doctor at the service is the nominated individual. A nominated individual is a person who is registered with the CQC to supervise the management of the regulated activities and for ensuring the quality of the services provided.

The other doctor at the service is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with CQC 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.

We carried out this inspection to review in detail the actions taken by the provider in relation to the warning notices issued by the CQC following the previous inspection on 19 June 2018 and to check whether the provider was now compliant with the Regulations.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector, who was supported by a GP specialist advisor.

During this inspection on 17 September 2018 we:

• Spoke with the lead doctor (who was also the nominated individual), the other doctor (who was also the registered manager) and the administration assistant.

• Reviewed a sample of patient care and treatment records.

• Reviewed the service’s policies and procedures, staff files and meeting minutes.

Updated 1 November 2018

We previously carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of London Prevention Clinic on 19 April 2018 and found that the service was in breach of Regulation 12: ‘Safe care and treatment’ and Regulation 17: ‘Good governance’ of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. In line with the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) enforcement processes we issued two warning notices which required London Prevention Clinic to comply with the Regulations by 15 June 2018.

We then carried out an announced focused inspection of London Prevention Clinic on 19 June 2018 and found that the service remained in breach of Regulation 12 and Regulation 17. We issued two warning notices which required London Prevention Clinic to comply with the Regulations by 17 August 2018.

The full reports of the 19 April 2018 and 19 June 2018 inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for London Prevention Clinic on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We carried out this focused 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 now meeting the Regulations of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The previous inspection on 19 June 2018 identified areas where the provider had not complied with Regulation 12: ‘Safe care and treatment’. We found:

• Patient records were not written and managed in a way that kept patients safe and we saw evidence of inappropriate prescribing.
• There was no system to ensure medicines or safety alerts were recorded, discussed and acted upon by staff.
• Not all clinical staff had enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks.

The inspection on 19 June 2018 also identified areas where the provider had not complied with Regulation 17: ‘Good governance’. We found:

• Some policies were not specific to the service, as they identified individuals who did not work for the service and outlined processes which were not actually in place.

At this inspection on 17 September 2018 we found that although the provider had taken some action in relation to the provision of safe, effective and well-led care, there were still breaches of the Regulations.

Our key findings were:

• All clinicians had enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) checks.
• The system to ensure safety alerts were recorded, discussed and acted upon was not effective.
• Patient records were not written and managed in a way that kept patients safe.
• We saw instances where the service was not delivering care and treatment in line with current evidence based guidance.
• The service had commissioned an external company to produce new policies. However, some policies were missing and others were not fit for purpose or did not contain adequate information.

We identified regulations that were not being met and the provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

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

The CQC identified breaches of Regulation 12 which gave us serious concerns. The provider has agreed to cease carrying out regulated activities until further notice and the CQC will continue to monitor the service and assess the need for further enforcement action.