Archived: John Pounds Medical Centre

Updated 15 July 2019

John Pounds Medical Centre is located at 3 Aylward Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3DU.

John Pounds Medical Centre provides a service for the removal of benign minor skin lesions. This supports patients, over 18 years of age, who previously received this service under the NHS. It is located at the premises of a GP practice, named John Pounds Surgery (the host organisation for the purposes of this report) and operates on a Saturday by arrangement. There is a facility agreement between the host organisation and John Pounds Medical Centre confirming the arrangements for premises, staff and equipment. John Pounds Medical Centre pays for the services provided. The clinic is led by a specialist doctor who is supported by two administrators. Staff are sub-contracted from the host organisation so additional staff, such as a practice nurse, can be arranged when necessary. At the time of the inspection, the service had held two clinics and treated six patients.

The website for the service can be found at https://eclipsemedical.co.uk

How we inspected this service

During our visit we:

• Spoke with staff including, the registered manager and the business manager.
• Looked at information the clinic used to deliver care and treatment plans.
• We reviewed all six patient records.

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 15 July 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

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 John Pounds Medical Centre as part of our inspection programme. This was the first inspection since the provider registered with the Care Quality Commission.

The service provides services to patients which were previously provided by the NHS. The service removes benign minor skin lesions, for patients who cannot receive this service on the NHS and who are over 18 years of age.

The lead clinician is 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.

The service has run two clinics since December 2018 and treated six patients in total. There was not a clinic on the day of the inspection and there had not been a clinic in the two weeks prior to the inspection so there were no comment cards available for us to review patient feedback.

Our key findings were:

• Individual care records were written and managed in a way that kept patients safe.
• There were arrangements for planning and monitoring the number and mix of staff needed.
• Patients’ immediate and ongoing needs were fully assessed.
• Staff understood the requirements of legislation and guidance when considering consent and decision making.
• The provider arranged the service to meet the needs of patients who were no longer able to receive treatment for benign minor skin lesions under the NHS.
• Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of services.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review its assurance processes to demonstrate appropriate risk assessments and systems are in place in relation to health and safety measures, such as Legionella, fire checks, cleaning schedules.
• Review its assurance processes to demonstrate staff had received an annual appraisal.

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