Kings Medical Centre

Updated 28 October 2019

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector and included a GP specialist adviser.

Kings Medical Centre provides private general practice services from purpose-built premises located in the basement of a pharmacy at 104 Edgeware Road, London, W2 2EA.

The premises consist of a patient reception and waiting area, GP consultation rooms, storage and maintenance areas.

The service is run by one GP who is registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) Most people who use the service are visitors from Middle Eastern countries. The GP sees adults and children for minor conditions. If a person walks in to the pharmacy requesting to see a doctor, they will be seen by the GP or referred to other local private GP services if the GP is unavailable. Patients can also book an appointment. The clinic provides a limited service providing up to 50 consultations a month.

The service offered a walk-in service, seven days per week from 10pm to midnight. It also offered appointments from 6pm to 9pm on Monday and Thursday. It does not offer any services outside of these hours.

We carried out this inspection on 26 September 2019 and before visiting, we looked at a range of information that we hold about the practice. We reviewed the last inspection report from July 2018 and from information submitted by the service in response to our provider information request.

During our visit we interviewed the GP, observed practice and reviewed documents.

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.

Updated 28 October 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

A previous inspection was carried out at Kings Medical Centre on 10 July 2018 when we inspected the provision of private general practice services. At that time, we did not rate the service but found the provider had met the requirements of the key questions for providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led care.

Although there were no breaches of regulations, we noted that the provider could make improvements in areas relating to the proof of identification when registering patients, having procedures in place to ensure that adults attending with children have parental responsibility to allow consent to treatment and to review how national patient safety alerts are received and acted on.

We carried out this comprehensive inspection at Kings Medical Centre on 26 September 2019 under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This announced inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to check that the provider had made improvements as highlighted in our previous inspection and to rate the service.

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

The service lead GP 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. The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide the regulated activities diagnostic and screening procedures, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Our key findings were:

• The service had systems in place to manage significant events.
• The service had a clear vision to deliver high quality care for patients.
• The service had clearly defined systems, processes and practices to minimise risks to patient safety.
• Policies and procedures were in place to govern all relevant areas.
• The GP had been trained in areas relevant to their role.
• The service had systems in place for monitoring and auditing the care that had been provided.
• The GP assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence-based guidance.
• Information about services was available and easy to understand.
• The GP had the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• There was an effective system in place for obtaining patients’ consent.
• The service had systems and processes in place to ensure that patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
• The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• The service was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care