Antrobus Medical Limited

Updated 26 July 2019

Background

Antrobus Medical Limited, an online primary care service, was inspected at the following address: Suite 4, Pentland House, Village Way, Wilmslow. Antrobus Medical Limited operates an online consultation and prescription service through the website www.webmedpharmacy.co.uk which specialises in treatment of conditions primarily concerning sexual health. GPs are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), have a license to practice and are on the GP register.

A medical questionnaire is completed by each patient and a doctor can seek more information prior to prescribing by using a secure messaging system or via a telephone call. The service provides medicines to address sexual health needs as well as medicines to aid weight loss and medicines to promote hair growth.

The service is available for patients in the UK only. Patients can access the service by phone or e-mail from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. This is not an emergency service. Subscribers to the service pay for their medicines when making their on-line application. Antrobus was registered with Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 11 August 2016 and has a registered manager in place. 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 is currently staffed by an operations manager, a superintendent pharmacist and a GP prescriber.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. During this inspection we spoke to the registered manager, the other member of the management team and the prescribing GP.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we 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 26 July 2019

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We rated this service as Good overall. (Previous inspection January 2018 – Good)

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 Antrobus Medical Limited on 4 June 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

Antrobus Medical Limited operates an online consultation and prescription service through the website www.webmedpharmacy.co.uk which specialises in treatment of conditions primarily concerning sexual health. A medical questionnaire is completed by each patient and a doctor can seek more information prior to prescribing by using a secure messaging system. Overall, we found Antrobus Medical Limited provided safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led services in accordance with the relevant regulations; we noted one area of outstanding practice and one area where improvement should be made.

At this inspection we found:

•  The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.

•  The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.

•  Appropriate medical records were maintained.

•  Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

•  Patients could access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.

•  There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

•  Management oversight of staff training, professional registration and annual appraisal was not always maintained.

•  Information about services and how to complain was available. We found the systems and processes in place to manage and investigate complaints were effective.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

•  Continue to review the approach and choice of antibiotic in the treatment of Urinary Tract Infection.

•  Provide comprehensive counselling for prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing so that patients can make informed decisions before testing commences.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care