ZoomDoc

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