ZoomDoc

Updated 26 August 2022

The service is provided by ZoomDoc Ltd (the provider) which is registered by the CQC in relation to the regulated activities Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The provider’s registered location is Unit 2B NW Works, 135 Salusbury Road, London NW6 6RJ, which is its operational base for management and administrative staff.

The provider offers a private GP service, by telephone and online video consultations bookable via a secure mobile application (app.). Service users can book a 10-minute telephone or online video consultation with a GP 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Appointments are available at times to suit service users. They may choose from a number of duty doctors and pay for a consultation by credit or debit card only via the ZoomDoc app. When appropriate, GPs may issue prescriptions, but this is only done following online video consultations, having checked and established the service user’s identity. Notes of consultations are available for service users to access and download in Portable Document Format (pdf). The service is not intended to provide care in relation to patients’ long-term health conditions. People requiring such care are referred to their own GPs or a private service. Nor is it an emergency service; people with emergency healthcare needs are advised to call 999 or are directed to their local Accident and Emergency (A&E) department. In addition, the service offers a range of wellness health tests, principally using laboratory analysis of blood samples, with results being reviewed by its doctors who then provide advice to service users. The provider is also a UK Government-approved Covid-19 testing service, offering polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lateral flow tests. To be eligible to register for an account a service user must be aged 18 or over. Parents or legal guardians may later add children under 18 years old to their primary service account after the initial registration.

The registered manager is the lead GP, who undertakes consultations as part of the service, in addition to six GPs who operate as contracted consultants. We confirmed that all the GPs working in the service are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) with a licence to practice and are on the GP Register. They are also on the NHS National Performers List and currently working in the NHS.

Details of the service are available on the provider’s website - www.zoomdoc.com

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider and conducted online interviews with the registered manager, including a review of a random selection of healthcare records.

To get to the heart of people’s 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 August 2022

Letter from the Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services

We rated this service as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as: Good

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 of the service on 5 and 9 August 2022. It was a comprehensive inspection, following the service moving to a new location which was registered in April 2022. Information can be found on the following page of our website –

https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-12502022209

We had inspected the service when it was based at a different location in September 2019. The report of that inspection can be found on the archived page of our website -

https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-6285862300

ZoomDoc Ltd, (the provider) now offers a private GP service by telephone and online video consultations, bookable via a secure mobile application (app.). Service users can book a 10-minute telephone or online video consultation with a GP 24 hours a day and seven days a week. These consultations can be extended for a fixed fee charged per five minutes. Home visits, which had been available previously, are no longer provided. The service also offers a range of wellness health tests, principally using laboratory analysis of blood samples, with results being reviewed by its doctors who then provide advice to service users. In addition, the provider is a UK Government approved Covid-19 testing service, offering polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lateral flow testing, via a contracted arrangement with a third party laboratory.

The provider is registered by the CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service, which are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Some services are provided to users under arrangements made by their employer and are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, we inspected only those services which are not arranged for users by their employers.

The provider has a registered manager who is registered by 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 regarding how the service is run.

At this inspection we found:

• The provider had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the provider learned from them and improved its processes.
• The provider routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it offered.
• The provider involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• People could access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Proceed with the planned review and consolidation of its governance policies.
• Proceed with introducing formal processes for recording and actioning patient safety alerts and good practice guidance.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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