Archived: MASTA Travel Clinic - Ipswich

Updated 20 June 2019

The head office for the provider MASTA Limited (Medical Advisory Services for Travellers Abroad) is based in Leeds. The medical team and head of operations is based there. They have many pharmacy and nurse-led travel clinics located throughout the United Kingdom.

MASTA Travel Clinic - Ipswich is located at 47 St Nicholas Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP1 1TW. The private travel clinic is a location for the provider MASTA Limited. MASTA Limited provides more than 200 private travel clinics across the UK. MASTA are owned by an American company called McKesson. The clinic offers travel health consultations, travel and non-travel vaccines, blood tests for antibody screening and travel medicines such as anti-malarial medicines to children and adults. MASTA Limited are licenced for the importation and distribution of vaccination medicines, and supply vaccines to GP surgeries and NHS services across the country. They also provide travel health training and mentorship for pharmacists and nurses.

The clinic is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities, diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The clinic is currently open two days a month, from 9.30am to 5pm on a Wednesday and Thursday. This is temporary as they are recruiting nursing staff, and plan to open more hours when they have recruited.

Further information can be found at

How we inspected this service

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service. We also asked the service to complete a provider information request. During our visit we:

• Spoke to the registered manager, who was a nurse at the clinic.

• Looked at information the clinic used to deliver care and treatment plans.

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 20 June 2019

This service is rated as good overall. At our previous inspection, published in June 2018, we did not rate the service but found the provider was compliant in all domains.

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 MASTA Ipswich as part of our inspection programme and to provide a rating.

MASTA Travel Clinic - Ipswich is a private clinic providing travel health advice, travel and non-travel vaccines, blood tests for antibody screening and travel medicines such as anti-malarial medicines to children and adults. In addition, the clinic holds a licence to administer yellow fever vaccines.

This location is registered with CQC in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by, or under the supervision of, a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines for the purposes of travel health.

One of the nurses 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.

The clinic is currently open two days every month, whilst they are recruiting nursing staff, and plan to open more hours when they have recruited. The clinic was closed on the day we were inspecting, so we were not able to speak with any patients. We sent the provider comment cards for patients to complete but due to the current opening hours of the clinic, patients had not had the opportunity to comment in this way about the services they had received. Patient feedback which was available from the clinic was positive, particularly in relation to the comprehensive advice provided and the friendly and professional staff.

Our key findings were:

• The clinic had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. The provider discussed any incidents with the wider corporate team where lessons learned were shared to improve their processes across locations.
• There was an infection prevention and control policy and procedures were in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection. Infection control audits and risk assessments were undertaken and identified actions were completed.
• Vaccines, medicines and emergency equipment were safely managed. There were clear auditable trails relating to stock control.
• The provider ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines and up to date travel health information.
• Each patient received an individualised travel health brief tailored to the patient’s specific needs and travel plans. The health brief outlined a risk assessment and all travel vaccinations that were either required or recommended. Specific health information including additional health risks related to their destinations with advice on how to manage common illnesses was also included.
• Staff had the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to deliver the care and treatment offered by the service.
• Consultations were comprehensive and undertaken in a professional manner.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• The service encouraged and valued feedback from patients and staff and acted in response to the feedback received. Patient feedback obtained from the clinic, were positive about the standard of care and quality of the service received.
• There was a leadership structure in place with clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management. Staff felt supported by the leadership team and worked well together as a team.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider photographic identification checks for adults who have parental responsibility for children, to ascertain the correct identity.     

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