Archived: The GP Surgery Wimbledon

Updated 15 June 2018

The GP Surgery Ltd is an independent provider of medical and aesthetic services and treats both adults and children. The address of the registered provider is Ground floor, Sterling House

6-10 St Georges Road, London SW19 4DP. The GP Surgery Ltd is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activity diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning services, maternity and midwifery services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The provider is applying to add the regulated activity, surgical procedures to their registration. Regulated activities are provided at one location, The GP Surgery Wimbledon, which is located within a pharmacy. The provider also intends to provide medical services a satellite branch located in a pharmacy in a department store in Knightsbridge, London. This service is in the final stages of arrangements being made before the service commences. All regulated activities provided at the satellite branch will be managed by the main Wimbledon location.

The organisation is run by three directors. One of the directors is a GP and is the registered manager and nominated individual for the provider. 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 a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The Wimbledon service is housed within a pharmacy store on the ground floor. The premises consist of a patient waiting area, two doctors’ consultation rooms, one nurse treatment room, a patient toilet with baby-changing facilities and a disabled toilet. The service is open seven days a week. Opening hours are between 8.30am and 7.30pm Monday to Thursday; 8.30am to 7pm on Friday; 9am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 3pm on Sunday.

Home visits are offered between 9am and 8pm and a night time home visit service is offered between 8pm and 9pm to patients within defined post code areas.

Regulated services offered at The GP Surgery Wimbledon include general medical consultations and treatment and service nursing services. The service offers a range of blood tests including the Harmony prenatal test. Minor surgical procedures offered include earlobe repair and mole, lipoma and cyst surgical excisions. The GP Surgery Wimbledon also offers ultrasound services at the location via a third-party ultrasound service provider. The satellite branch will offer GP Consultations only.

At The GP Surgery Ltd the aesthetic treatments including superficial mole and skin tag removal are exempt from CQC regulation and as such were not inspected or reported on.

Since its inception on 1 December 2014, The GP Surgery Wimbledon has treated over 21000 individual patients, many of which have re-attended the surgery. There are approximately 200 GP or surgeon appointments per week and 30 nurse appointments per week.

The surgery staff consist of ten part time doctors, two of which are directors of the organisation and one surgeon who undertakes minor surgery and three part time service nurses. The clinical team is supported by a non-clinical director, a service manager and six administrative and reception staff.

How we inspected the service:

Our inspection team on 9 May 2018 was led by a CQC Lead Inspector and included a GP Specialist Advisor.

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with three doctors.
• Spoke with the service manager and business manager.
• Spoke with a reception staff member.
• Looked at the systems in place for the running of the service.
• Viewed a sample of key policies and procedures.
• Explored how clinical decisions were made.
• Made observations of the environment.
• Reviewed feedback from 25 patients including CQC comment cards.

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 15 June 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 9 May 2018 to ask the service the following key questions: Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. We also planned the inspection to check on concerns raised which we had received.

The GP Surgery Ltd provides private medical and aesthetic services at The GP Surgery Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton. Services are provided to both adults and children.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines. At The GP Surgery Ltd some aesthetic treatments that are provided by doctors are exempt from CQC regulation.

We received feedback from 25 people about the service, including comment cards, all of which were very positive about the service and indicated that patients were treated with kindness and respect. Staff were described as helpful, caring, thorough and professional.

Our key findings were:

• There were arrangements in place to keep patients safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• Health and safety and premises risks were not always assessed and well-managed.
• There were safe systems for the management of medicines
• Staff knew how to deal with medical emergencies. Appropriate medicines and equipment were available.
• The premises were clean and hygienic.
• The service had safe systems for recording, acting on and improving when things went wrong.
• Assessments and treatments were carried out in line with relevant and current evidence based guidance and standards.
• There was evidence of some quality improvement measures.
• The systems for monitoring training for staff were not always effective.
• Staff treated patients with kindness, respect, dignity and professionalism.
• Opening hours reflected the needs of the population and patients were able to book appointments when they needed them.
• The service had a clear procedure for managing complaints. They took complaints and concerns seriously and responded to them appropriately to improve the quality of care.
• Leaders had the skills and capacity to deliver the service and provide high quality care.
• Staff stated they felt respected, supported and valued. They were proud to work in the service.
• The provider was aware of and had systems to ensure compliance with the requirements of the duty of candour.
• The service asked staff and patients for feedback about the services they provided.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the management of health and safety of the premises including legionella testing and fire safety.
• Ensure that staff receive training in safeguarding adults, infection control, fire safety and information governance appropriate to their roles.
• Review the systems to ensure adequate and ongoing monitoring of staff training according to the staff training policy.
• Review the use of clinical audit to improve quality.
• Review the systems for verifying the identity of adults accompanying child patients.