Private GP Clinic Ltd

Updated 28 February 2020

Private GP Clinic, Sunningdale provides private GP and healthcare services to patients who self-pay or have private medical insurance. They provide many GP services, including GP appointments, blood testing, travel vaccinations, minor surgery, menopause clinics and sexual health clinics. They also offer services that are out of scope of CQC registration such as ear clinic appointments and aesthetics clinics, which were not inspected as part of this inspection.

There are two GPs (one male and one female) who offer five sessions per week. Another GP (female) had recently been recruited and was due to commence with the service in early February 2020, offering an additional one session per week. One of the GPs was also the clinical lead. There are no nursing staff and the service employs a non-patient facing healthcare assistant.

There is a non-clinical Director (who is also the CQC registered manager), who oversees the day-to-day operational activity of the service. They are supported by a practice manager, an assistant practice manager, a head receptionist and two receptionists. Administration support is provided by two members of administration staff, who work at another site.

The provider has an additional location in West Byfleet and the GPs and Director split their time between the two locations. The West Byfleet location offers nurse appointments which patients from the Sunningdale location can access, if required. We only inspected the Sunningdale site for this inspection.

The Sunningdale location is situated in a commercial property that has been converted to a medical facility (with local planning permissions). They share the facility with other healthcare professionals who are not associated with the provider. The service operates from two clinical rooms and an administrative area. The waiting areas and patient toilets are communal.

The service operational hours are advertised as Monday and Tuesday from 9am to 5.30pm, Wednesday and Thursday from 9am to 7.30pm, Friday from 9am to 4.30pm and alternate Saturdays from 9am to 1pm.

The provider is Private GP Clinic Limited. They are registered with CQC to offer the following regulated activities; Diagnostic and screening procedures, Surgical procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury from this location.

The Sunningdale Clinic is registered at:

3 Broomfield Hall Buildings, London Road, Sunningdale, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 0DP.

The service website () offers information about both provider locations and the services offered. There are also details of costs of treatment and how to book an appointment.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection, we asked to provider to send us some information, which was reviewed prior to the inspection day. We also reviewed information held by CQC on our internal systems. Before the inspection day, we had sent the provider a comments cards box and comment cards to be handed to patients using the service to get their views.

During the inspection we spoke with various members of staff (including the lead GP, Director, health care assistant and the assistant practice manager), made observations of the facilities and service provision and reviewed documents, records and information held by the service.

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 28 February 2020

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Private GP Clinic, Sunningdale on 22 January 2020 as part of our inspection programme. This was the first inspection of this service following registration with the CQC in January 2019.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in and of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Private GP Clinic, Sunningdale provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example dermal fillers and laser hair removal which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The Director 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.

We received seven CQC comment cards from patients of the service. They described the service as professional and caring with friendly staff. We did not have the opportunity to speak with any patients on the day of the inspection.

Our key findings from the January 2020 inspection were:

• Safety processes were established and embedded. Staff knew their role and responsibility towards safeguarding and how to keep patients safe.
• Medicines used within the building (including emergency medicines and vaccines) were stored in line with guidance and checked appropriately.
• The provider reviewed and monitored care and treatment to ensure it was providing effective services.
• Clinical and prescribing audits were used to improve quality. Staff received training appropriate to their role.
• Patient feedback was positive about their care and treatment. Staff understood how to help and support patients, to meet their needs.
• The practice was responsive to the needs of their patients and organised care and treatment for the individual. Where the service was not appropriate or could not meet a patients’ needs, they were signposted to an alternative service.
• Leaders and managers had positive working relationships with their staff and patients. The service had clear policies and procedures which were easily accessible to staff.
• There was appropriate knowledge and oversight of performance, incidents and events.

Whilst there were no breaches of regulation, the areas the provider should make improvements are:

• Include explanation documentation in staff recruitment files where employment gaps have been identified and reviewed.
• Inform staff to correctly label clinical waste when preparing it for collection.
• Undertake records audits to ensure record keeping and clinical notes are in line with GMC guidance.

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