Archived: Care UK - South West London

Updated 30 September 2014

Care UK – South West London provides a GP Out of Hours Service in the form of advice, information and treatment for NHS patients who become unwell during out-of–hours periods when their own GP surgery is closed. The service is provided to patients whose healthcare is commissioned by Merton, Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG). The service covers 127 GP practices and over 59700 patients. The provider is registered with the CQC as a doctors consultation and treatment service, a mobile doctors service and remote clinical advice service to carry out the regulated activities: transport, triage and medical advice provided remotely and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The NHS 111 service (the number patients contact when they need medical treatment or advice when their GP is closed) is operated by Care UK (Urgent Care) and managed from another location; call handling and triage are completed at that location.

Harmoni HS Ltd was founded in September 1996 by two doctors as a GP co-operative in Harrow, from November 2012 Harmoni is a wholly owned subsidiary of Care UK with its main business being Out-of-Hours care and NHS 111 services.

Patients can be seen at seven bases across the four CCG areas:

Balham Health Centre,

120-124, Bedford Hill,

London,

SW12 9HS;

Brocklebank Health Centre,

249, Garrett Lane,

London,

SW18 4DU;

St Georges (Urgent Care Centre/Primary Care Centre) in the accident and emergency unit at St Georges Hospital,

Blackshaw Road,

Tooting,

SW17 0QT;

Queen Marys Polyclinic, Minor Injuries Unit,

Roehampton Lane,

Roehampton,

SW15 5PN

Kingston Hospital (out of hours Primary Care Centre)

Galsworthy Road,

Kingston,

Surrey,

KT2 7QB;

Cross Deep Surgery,

4, Cross Deep,

Twickenham, London,

TW1 4 QP and at

Cricket Green

75-79, Miles Road,

Mitcham,

Surrey,

CR4 3DA

We visited the administrative office and Cricket Green base during this inspection.

This was the first inspection of Care UK – South West London since it registered with CQC on 25 February 2012.

Updated 30 September 2014

Care UK – South West London is a GP Out of Hours service covering 127 GP practices for NHS patients in the Merton, Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth areas. The service is commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) for each of the areas. The service has an office in Putney and seven bases for patients to attend booked appointments during evenings and weekends and four cars so GPs can provide home visits where necessary. We inspected the regulated activities of transport, triage and medical advice provided remotely and treatment of disease, disorder and injury during this inspection.

Before our visit we spoke with the CCG, NHS England and Healthwatch. We spoke with four patients, 14 members of staff including GPs, the clinical lead, medical director, training lead and registered manager during the visit. We looked at a range of records including staff recruitment and training, health and safety, infection control, clinical audits, serious untoward incidents, complaints and policy documents. We checked medicines.

We found the service provided a safe service to patients with systems in place to review safety information, incidents and complaints and the provider shared this with staff and used it to improve the services provided. Medicines were appropriately stored, regular checks were made to ensure medicines were used before their expiry date. Emergency medicines and equipment was available to GPs. Staff recruitment was in line with provider’s requirement procedures, staff had access to the training, support and supervision they needed to carry out their role. Arrangements were in place for all staff to have an annual appraisal. The service ensured GPs provided effective care to patients by keeping GPs up to date with changes to good practice guidelines and standards. They worked with other health and social care services to ensure patients received joined up care and treatment and provided a caring service to patients. Staff had access to translators if required, maintained patients privacy and dignity and involved patients and their relatives or representatives in decision making. Patients made positive comments about the care and treatment they received. The service was responsive to patients through the provision of bookable appointments at seven bases across the area and home visits to patients when this was required. The provider responded to complaints and used the process to review and improve services when required. The service was well-led. There was a clear vision and systems for managing risks, audit, training and learning ensured the service provided high quality out of hours care and promoted good outcomes for patients.