Online Clinic - UK - Limited - Wingate Square

Updated 20 March 2023

Online Clinic (UK) Limited provides online consultations to patients, through online forms and a messaging system conducted within the patients online record, for a condition selected by the patient themselves. A GP will then review the request, may ask for further information and if appropriate, provide a private prescription to be dispensed by a pharmacy chose by the patient.

The service is located at:

Office 2 Wingate Business Exchange

64-66 Wingate Square

London

SW4 0AF

A registered manager is 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 clinical GP team is led by a clinical lead who provides oversight of clinical practice. The service has 15 UK registered GPs who are registered with the GMC and work remotely. The GPs are of self-employed status working for the provider under a practising privileges agreement. At the headquarters there is a service manager, patient coordinator, administration and IT staff.

Online Clinic (UK) Limited are registered with the Care Quality Commission for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

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 and members of the management and administration team.

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 20 March 2023

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We rated this service 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 Online Clinic UK Limited as part of our inspection programme.

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.
• 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.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Maintain arrangements for auditing GPs clinical assessments.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services