Updated 9 May 2019
Background to Nuffield Health Cambridge Fitness and Wellbeing Centre
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
Our inspection was led by a CQC inspector with a GP specialist advisor.
The service is part of the Nuffield Health UK health organisation, a trading charity which was established in 1957 and runs a network of 32 private hospitals, medical clinics, fitness and wellbeing centres and diagnostic units across the UK.
Nuffield Health Cambridge Fitness and Wellbeing Centre is a purpose-built facility offering a full range of fitness and wellbeing activities including physiotherapy and health assessments, personal training, fitness suite, exercise classes, swimming pool and cafe. Services are predominantly for those over 18 years of age with some activities open to children, however health assessments are not available to children. Health assessments are available to both members and non-members.
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 Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Nuffield Health Cambridge Fitness and Wellbeing Centre provides a range of fitness activities, for example, personal training, fitness suite, exercise classes, swimming pool and cafe which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services. The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury in relation to the health assessment services offered.
Patients have access to the following range of health assessments:
- A general lifestyle health assessment for patients wanting to reduce health risks and make lifestyle changes.
- A female assessment covering all aspects of female health including a cervical smear test and mammogram carried out by a GP. Male specific testing includes testicular examination and prostate testing.
- A ‘360 degree’ health assessment which is an in-depth assessment of a patient’s health and wellbeing and includes a review of diabetes and heart health risks.
- A ‘360 degree plus’ health assessment which is the most in-depth assessment with an extra focus on cardiovascular health in addition to bespoke health assessments focusing on weight management and resilience.
The centre is open between 6am and 10pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 9pm on weekends and bank holidays. Pre-booked health assessments are available Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm. The team at Nuffield Health Cambridge consists of a general manager who is also the CQC registered manager, a deputy general manager, clinic manager who is also a physiologist and three part time health assessment GPs. Various administrative, reception and fitness staff support the operating of the centre.
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.