Idos Health and Wellbeing CIC

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 Idos Health and Wellbeing CIC as part of our inspection programme. At the time of the inspection there were no patients attending the service or receiving regulated services. While we were unable to ask patients about the service, we were able to gather patient feedback from the service as part of our inspection.

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 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. Idos Health and Wellbeing CIC provides a range of holistic and psychological services (counselling) and complementary therapies. Therefore, we do not inspect or report on these services.

Idos Health and Wellbeing CIC is registered in respect of the provision of treatment of disease, disorder or injury and for diagnostic and screening procedures. The service provides a GP service, providing consultations face to face (with or without prescribing), physical examinations and they have a visiting elderly care physician who does elderly care assessments. They have a sleep consultant who carries out sleep consultations and sleep diagnostics. They offer a service to provide injections which are prescribed to help weight management in adults. The lead clinician is the registered manager. Patients can access the service via the website or by telephoning the service. The list of fees are on the website and there are health plans available.

The clinic offered other services; these services are exempt from regulation. The services included, psychotherapy, shiatsu (a form of massage), acupuncture, medical herbalism, nutrition, qigong, (a Chinese healing practice that combines meditation, controlled breathing), yoga, health coaching, aromatherapy and exercise therapy.

Our key findings were:

• Governance systems were well established within the service. There were effective systems for monitoring service provision to ensure it was safe.
• There were systems in place for the overall management of significant events and incidents. Risks to patients were assessed and well managed. There was evidence of quality improvement activity and regular audits were completed to monitor the quality of services and implement new initiatives.
• There were appropriate systems in place for obtaining patient consent for procedures undertaken.
• The practice encouraged and valued feedback from patients and staff. They proactively sought patients’ feedback. Information we received from staff and patients was wholly positive.
• Staff felt supported and were confident in raising concerns and suggesting improvements.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• The provider had a clear vision and strategy to deliver quality care. There was strong leadership in place to support the strategy and effective governance processes to manage risk and further develop service provision.

We saw the following area of outstanding practice:

• The service adopted a multi-disciplinary and innovative approach to ensuring that patients received a holistic service that combined traditional and complementary medicine and therapies.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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