Nuffield Health Crawley Fitness and Wellbeing Centre

Updated 5 July 2019

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.

Our inspection was led by a CQC inspector with a GP specialist advisor.

The service is part of the Nuffield Health UK health organisation, a trading charity which was established in 1957 and runs a network of 32 private hospitals, medical clinics, fitness and wellbeing centres and diagnostic units across the UK.

Nuffield Health and Wellbeing Centre Crabbet Lane Crawley is part of Nuffield Health a not-for-profit healthcare provider. The clinic provides a variety of health assessment for both corporate and private clients (adults only). The clinic aims to provide a comprehensive picture of an individual’s health, covering key health concerns such as diabetes, heart health, cancer risk and emotional wellbeing. Following the assessment and screening process patients undergo a consultation with a doctor to discuss the findings of the results and discuss any required treatment planning. Patients are provided with a comprehensive report detailing the findings of the assessment. The reports include advice and guidance on how the patient can improve their health and they include information to support patients to live healthier lifestyles. The clinic can also refer to an on-site nutritionist (2 days a week) and physiotherapists.

The clinic address is: -

Crabbat Park, Turners Hill Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 4ST

The core opening hours for the clinic are Monday, Tuesday and Friday 8am-5pm.

The staff team at the clinic consists of two health assessment doctors covering three days a week (both female GPs) and three physiologists. Patients who may require further investigations or any additional support are referred on to other services, such as their NHS GP, physiotherapist, nutritionist or other healthcare professional. Clinicians do not provide prescriptions to patients. In instances where a prescribed medication may be indicated, the patient is referred to their NHS GP or independent health provider (A physiologist is a graduate in exercise, nutrition and health sciences, and are full professional members of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). They are trained to carry out health assessments, give advice and motivate lifestyle changes affecting areas such as exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress management).

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 particular 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. Nuffield Health and Wellbeing Centre Crabbet Lane Crawley provides a range of fitness activities, for example, personal training, fitness suite, exercise classes, swimming pool and cafe which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury in relation to the health assessment services offered.

Patients have access to the following range of health assessments:

• A general lifestyle health assessment for patients wanting to reduce health risks and make lifestyle changes.
• A female assessment covering all aspects of female health including a cervical smear test carried out by a GP.
• A ‘360 degree’ health assessment which is an in-depth assessment of a patient’s health and wellbeing and includes a review of diabetes and heart health risks.
• A ‘360 degree plus’ health assessment which is the most in-depth assessment with an extra focus on cardiovascular health in addition to bespoke health assessments focusing on weight management and resilience.
• Personalised Assessments for Tailored Health (PATH) are also available, these are tailored to suit the patient’s individual needs.

Before our inspection we reviewed a range of information about the service, this included patient feedback from the public domain, information from the providers website and the providers CQC information return. During our visit we:

Looked at the systems in place for the running of the service

• Explored how clinical decisions were made
• Viewed a sample of key policies and procedures
• Spoke with a range of staff
• Looked at a random selection of anonymised patient reports
• Made observations of the environment and infection control measures
• Reviewed patient feedback 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 5 July 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previously inspected January 2018 where the practice was not rated but was found to be compliant in all areas)

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 Nuffield Health and Wellbeing Centre Crabbet Lane Crawley on 5 June 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

Nuffield Health and Wellbeing Centre Crabbet Lane Crawley is part of Nuffield Health a not-for-profit healthcare provider. The centre offers a full range of fitness and wellbeing activities including physiotherapy and health assessments, personal training, fitness suite, exercise classes, swimming pool and cafe. The health assessment clinic is based within the fitness centre. Patients seen in the clinic are either private patients or employees of organisations who are provided with health and wellbeing services as part of their employee benefit package. The services are provided to adults privately and are not commissioned by the NHS.

The general manager 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. There were ten comment cards completed. All these cards contained positive feedback from patients who accessed the service.

Our key findings were:

• There was an effective overarching governance framework which supported strategic objectives, performance management and the delivery of quality care. This encompassed all Nuffield Health locations and ensured a consistent and corporate approach across all sites.
• The service had clear systems in place to manage and mitigate risks so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. The service had a clear reporting system and information was shared across all of the provider’s locations.
• Clinicians were committed to improving the outcomes of patients and delivering quality care.
• There was effective local management, and when required organisational support was available at regional and national level.
• All health assessment rooms were well organised and equipped, with good light and ventilation.
• There were systems in place to check all equipment had been serviced regularly, including blood screening equipment.
• The service completed a number of clinical and non-clinical audits to assess performance and ensure care provided was safe. These audits were reviewed and actions taken where necessary.
• Patient feedback obtained by the service through feedback forms was consistently positive about the experiences received.
• Patients were provided with information about their health and with advice and guidance to support them to live healthier lives.
• Members of staff we spoke with were wholly positive about working at the service and the support provided to them from leaders.
• The provider had clear systems and processes in place to ensure care was delivered safely and good governance and management was supported.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

​Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care