Best Life Clinic

Updated 20 July 2021

Best Life Healthcare Ltd is a provider registered with the Care Quality Commission. The provider delivers regulated activities from Best Life Clinic, a location at 27 Norton Road, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 2BW http://bestlifeclinic.org/. There are two Directors, one Nurse Practitioner and a range of support staff.

Best Life Clinic is registered with the Care Quality Commission for the following regulated activities;

Treatment of disease, disorder or injury,

Surgical procedures,

Diagnostic and screening procedures.

Best Life Clinic provides a fee charging service consisting of consultations, examinations and treatment for patients with urological problems. Consultations and treatment are available for both children and adults. Urology is a surgical speciality, covering the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders affecting the urinary system starting from kidneys to urethra (water tube). The consultant at the clinic has special interests in bladder dysfunction, female incontinence, benign prostatic diseases, inflammatory diseases of urinary tract (urinary tract infections, prostatitis and painful bladder syndrome). Services offered are; Urodynamic Service to assess Bladder function and Incontinence, Catheter Care Service: Provided by an experienced Nurse practitioner including a trial without a catheter, reversal of vasectomy, Circumcision,

The practice provides services locally, nationally and internationally.

The opening times for the clinic are Monday - Saturday: 8:30am - 12:30pm. Evening appointments between 4.30pm and 8.30pm on request.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information provided by the Provider. We also asked Healthwatch and the Clinical Commissioning Group whether they had any information regarding the provider. We did not receive any information of concern from them. We also looked at any notifications that we had received.

During the inspection we interviewed staff and made observations and reviews of documents and the environment.

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 July 2021

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 26 May 2021 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

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 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 saw the following outstanding practice:

The clinic was extremely patient focused and provided a holistic service to them. Feedback through 31 surveys and 58 reviews commented that staff offered excellent care in a clean and welcoming environment and were supportive and responsive to questions and that they had confidence in the service provided.

The clinic had introduced systems to reduce the level of patient anxiety and the level of pain relief needed.

Best Life Clinic is a specialist clinic offering private urology services and reversal of vasectomies. The clinic is led by a Consultant Urologist. They also offer aesthetic services such as anti-wrinkle treatments, but these treatments are not regulated by the Care Quality Commission and were not inspected. This service had been inspected in 2018. The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission in August 2016.

There is a 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.

We found the service had met the regulations and had systems and protocols in place for staff to follow which kept patients safe.

Our key findings were;

There was an open and transparent approach to safety and a system in place for reporting and recording incidents.

• Patients reported they were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services was available and easy to understand.
• All consultation rooms were well organised and equipped, with good light and ventilation.
• Staff maintained the necessary skills and competence to support the needs of patients.
• Staff were up to date with current guidelines.
• Staff were kind, caring, competent and put patients at their ease.
• The provider was aware of, and complied with, the requirements of the Duty of Candour.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care