Archived: Top Medical Clinic LLP

Updated 6 July 2021

Top Medical Clinic is an independent provider of medical services and treats adults and children at 1B Church Road, Croydon CR0 1SG. The service also has a satellite site based at Unit 1 Colmore House, Frazer Nash Close, Isleworth, London, TW7 5FR.

The provider offers specialist services including general practice, aesthetic medicine, cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, endocrinology, gynaecology, internal medicine, neurology, orthopaedics, paediatrics and psychology. We did not inspect the dental element of the service in this inspection. The service is aimed at Polish patients, although other patients are seen at the clinic. Services are available to people on a pre-bookable appointment basis.

The service employs 10 administrative staff including receptionists. All of the clinical staff who work in the clinic are self-employed; however, they have a contract with the provider.

The main clinic has four floors with a reception and waiting area and nine consulting rooms. The property is owned by the provider; the clinic has no lift, the second, third and fourth floor consulting rooms are not accessible to people who use a wheelchair or other mobility aids and there is no accessible toilet. The clinic is open between 9am and 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 9am to 6pm on a Sunday. The satellite clinic is accessible to all and is based on a single floor and has six clinical rooms. The clinic is open between 10am and 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 10am to 5pm on a Sunday.

Top Medical Clinic LLP is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities diagnostic and screening procedures, family planning, maternity and midwifery services, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

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 6 July 2021

This service is rated as Good overall. The service had previously been inspected on 27 March 2019, and prior to that on 17 January 2018. That report was unrated, but at the latest inspection in 2019 the service was found to be in breach of regulation 17 of HSCA (RA) 2014, and a requirement notice was issued. The specific issues found which breached regulation 17 were in regards to significant event and complaint management, a lack of business continuity and health and safety plans, insufficient clinical audits and medicines management.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Top Medical Clinic LLP on 10 and 14 June 2021. We are mindful of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so. We found that all of the breaches of regulation from the previous inspection had been addressed. Following this inspection, the key questions are rated as:

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

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The service organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the service was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

The area where the provider should make improvements is:

• The service should consider reviewing the use of two separate databases, one for clinical notes and the other for test results.
• The service should consider undertaking focussed medicines audits to better understand compliance against the protocols in place at the site.

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