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 a short-notice announced comprehensive inspection at Dyad Medical on 22 July as part of our inspection programme.
Dyad Medical provides a consultant led outpatient service to assess, treat and diagnose adults aged 18 and above who are experiencing mental illness, cognitive impairments and other long-term conditions. Amongst services provided are a private clinic, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Centre and Esketamine Clinic to treat treatment resistant depression, and an Alzheimer’s Clinic providing Transcranial Pulse Stimulation (TPS).
The medical 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.
This was the first inspection of this service.
Our key findings were:
- The service provided safe care and treatment. The provider had appropriate systems and processes in place to keep people safe and safeguard them from abuse.
- Clinicians carried out comprehensive assessments and developed treatment plans in partnership with patients. They recommended or prescribed a range of treatments that were informed by best practice guidelines and met the needs of the patients.
- There were rigorous governance systems in place to monitor the use of prescription pads by all doctors and non-medical prescribers within the service.
- The service employed staff that had the right skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles effectively and provided them with appropriate training, supervision and appraisals.
- Staff treated patients with compassion and respect and helped them to make informed decisions about their care and treatment. Patients told us that their clinician supported them to understand the diagnosis and treatment options available to them.
- The service provided a range of treatments which were not easily available to patients on the NHS or elsewhere. The medical director ensured that the service had a focus on continuous learning and improvement.
- The service used a wide range of outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments for patients at the service.
- Patients could easily access the service. Staff ensured that care and treatment from the service was delivered within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
- The service responded promptly to feedback and was keen to make improvements when required.
- The service had effective governance systems in place that monitored the quality and safety of the service and highlighted when an improvement was required. For example, improvements had been made to the quality of patient records kept.
However:
- Staff had not completed an infection control audit to ensure that there were appropriate infection control measures within the service.
- Doctors did not always record the justification for prescribing medicines to patients who were unable to, or chose not to have information shared with their general practitioner.
- Staff were not recording the room temperature at which medicines were stored, to ensure they were stored in line with the manufacturer’s guidelines.
Jemima Burnage
Interim Director of Mental Health