Archived: Randox Health London Ltd

Updated 29 July 2019

Randox Health London Ltd is a private healthcare service, registered with the Care Quality Commission since 2015 to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening; and treatment of disease, disorder and injury. The providers headquarters are in Northern Ireland and it has another location in Liverpool.

The service provides health assessments through a range of health screening packages. Patients provide blood and urine samples which are processed in the on-site laboratory. The purpose of the screening is to provide a detailed review of a patients’ current health status, and to identify any potential underlying health problems.

Following the screening process, a comprehensive report is generated and sent to the patient with information about their current and projected future health The majority of packages purchased by patients include a consultation with a scientific consultant, other packages include a consultation with a GP. Scientific consultants are graduates in either a health or life science discipline, who have received further training to analyse and interpret patient results and give advice on how to make lifestyle changes affecting areas such as exercise, nutrition, sleep and stress management. Following a consultation with a scientific consultant if the patient wants further advice, they can opt to have a consultation with a GP. Any patients requiring further investigations, or any additional support, are referred to other services such as a medical consultant or advised to contact their NHS GP.

The service address is:

Finsbury House, 23 Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7EA.

The service is open Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 5.00pm and is open on request for appointments during extended hours between 7.00am to 9.00am and 5.00pm to 6.00pm and on Saturdays between 8.00am to 12.00pm. The staff at the location consist of: a clinic manager who also undertakes phlebotomy, a personal-co-ordinator, a scientific consultant and a part-time GP (working one day a week). The service is provided with regular support from the quality and operations managers who are based in Northern Ireland.

How we inspected this service

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector. The team included a specialist adviser.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed a range of documentary evidence including: the providers Information Request (PIR) completed by the service, policies and procedures used by the service:

On the day of the inspection we spoke with the clinic manager, a scientific consultant and a GP. We also reviewed a wide range of documentary evidence including policies, written protocols and guidelines, recruitment, induction and training records, significant event analyses, patient survey results and complaints.

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 29 July 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection: 31 May 2018, when it was found to be meeting the relevant standards).

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 Randox Health London Ltd on 31 May 2019 as part of our inspection programme. A copy of our previous inspection report can be found by going to https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-2209414431 and selecting the Reports tab.

When we previously inspected the service in May 2018 we found the service was meeting the relevant standards, however, we identified some areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the inclusion of child safeguarding, basic life support and Mental Capacity Act as part of the mandatory training.
• Consider implementing a two-cycle audit process as part of quality improvement activities.
• Review the patient consent form and consider including a provision to share information with the patient’s NHS GP.
• Review the effectiveness of the current portable wheelchair ramp used to assist patients into the building.

As part of this inspection patients of the service were asked to give feedback to CQC about their experiences of using the service. We received responses about the service from 19 people. All comments we received were positive about the service with patients mentioning: staff were courteous professional and caring, the clinic was always clean when they visited and all their questions were answered.

Randox Health London is a private healthcare service providing health assessments for its patients using a range of screening processes. The screening process involves taking blood, urine samples

and noting the patient’s bio-measurements, which includes height, weight, pulse and blood pressure readings. Patients purchase tests from a range of packages which include up to 350 biomarkers. Samples are tested in the onsite laboratory, which is registered as a separate entity..

Following the assessment and screening process, patients have a consultation with a healthcare expert (either a scientific consultant or a GP) to discuss the findings and any recommended lifestyle changes. Where necessary referrals to other services are made, for example to a specialist consultant.

Our key findings were:

• The service was in contact with its landlord to consider options for improving access for people who use wheelchairs.
• Mandatory training for all staff included child safeguarding, basic life support and the Mental Capacity Act.
• There was a system in place for recording and acting on significant events.
• We saw no evidence of discrimination when making care and treatment decisions.
• Feedback from patients was positive about the way staff treated people.
• Information about how to make a complaint or raise concerns was available.
• Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of services.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review and consider implementing use of local guidelines for antibiotic prescribing.
• Encourage patients to consent to information sharing with their NHS GP so it can form part of their lifetime medical record, and also create a protocol to appropriately list the medicines the service would not prescribe in the absence of consent to share information with the patients NHS GP.
• Consider implementing completed two-cycle clinical audit as part of quality improvement activity.
• Consider introducing a written risk assessment for medicines the service would not prescribe in the absence of consent to share information with patients NHS GP.
• Review and update all service policies and procedures regularly, to ensure they remain relevant.
• Continue to work to improve access for patients using wheelchairs.
• Introduce a formal agreement for the retention of medical records in line with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) guidance in the event the service ceases trading.
• Review and consider implementing regular checking of the water supply in line with recommendations in the most recent legionella test report.

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