Sleeping Disorders Centre London Ltd

Updated 24 May 2022

Sleeping Disorders Centre London Ltd is a specialist service for patients with sleep disorders. It is run by two ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) Consultants who carry out all of the work themselves. The provider diagnoses and treats obstructive sleep apnoea. This service is based online for patients and there are no physical premises for patients to attend. The provider is able to work remotely by using portable diagnostic equipment which patients can use in their own homes.

The service treats obstructive sleep apnoea with continual positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices. These devices enable patients to upload their own sleep study data so the clinicians can easily diagnose and monitor the patients who are referred to them. The service has a clinical commission group contract with Richmond CCG which enables referrals to be made from Richmond GP services. The referral process is quick and usually results in a consultation phone call being made within 48 hours.

The service audits and monitors its data and results to identify trends with patients who are all consistently contacted throughout their treatment. All data is stored online securely.

How we inspected this service

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 24 May 2022

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 an announced comprehensive inspection at Sleeping Disorders Centre London Ltd on 9 May 2022.

This service is a specialist service for patients with sleep disorders. The provider generally diagnoses and treats obstructive sleep apnoea. This service is based online and there are no physical premises for patients to attend. The provider is able to work remotely by using portable diagnostic equipment which patients can use in their own homes.

The lead clinician 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.

Our key findings were:

• The provider safely diagnosed and treated patients using modern technology and efficient methods which enabled continual monitoring.
• There were detailed records kept of all patients who attended this service and the treatment they received.
• Patients were happy with the results of their treatment at this service and found many advantages to the treatments provided.
• The clinical leads were proactive in considering ways to improve and drive research in this specialist area.
• The service was well managed and governed.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The provider should record its risk assessments for patients, treatments and the service as a whole.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care