Archived: Citydoc Canary Wharf

Updated 23 April 2019

Citydoc Canary Wharf is an independent health service based in Canary Wharf, London. The service is a location for the provider Citydoc Medical Limited, which manages three Citydoc clinics across London.

Citydoc Canary Wharf is a nurse led clinic which offers health screening, sexual health testing, travel vaccines and children’s vaccines (those not offered by the National Health Service). GP services ceased to be offered at this clinic as of March 2019. The service holds a licence to administer yellow fever vaccines.

Citydoc Canary Wharf rents one consultation room in shared premises called The Wellness Centre. The clinical team at the service consists of a nurse manager and nurse. The service also employs its own receptionist/administrative assistant.

Appointments are available from Monday to Thursday 9am to 6pm, on Fridays 8am to 5pm, and on Saturdays 9am to 2pm.

The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures, and treatment of disease, disorder and injury.

Although the service no longer offers GP appointments, the GP who worked there previously remained the registered manager. They were now based at one of the provider's other locations but oversaw the overall operation of the service. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC 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 carried out this inspection as a part of our comprehensive inspection programme of independent health providers. Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector, who was supported by a GP specialist advisor. The inspection was carried out on 18 March 2019. During the visit we:

• Spoke with the GP and nurse manager.

• Reviewed a sample of patient care and treatment records.

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 23 April 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 18 April 2019 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

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.

CQC inspected the service on 7 June 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements for providing care and treatment in a safe way and protecting patients’ dignity and respect. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found this had been resolved.

Citydoc Canary Wharf is an independent health service based in Canary Wharf, London.

Our key findings were:

• The service had systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety, and reliable systems for appropriate and safe handling of medicines. The service learned from, and made changes as a result of, incidents and complaints.
• The service assessed need and delivered care in line with current legislation, standards and evidence based guidance. There was no programme of regular audits in place, however the service did carry out mandatory audits through which it reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided.
• The service gave patients a full travel health assessment and tailored immunisation plan, taking into account medical history, the destination and method of travel and any associated risks.
• The service treated patients with kindness, respect and compassion.
• The service organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.
• There was a clear leadership structure in place, and staff told us that they felt able to raise concerns and were confident that these would be addressed.
• The service had a governance framework in place, which supported the delivery of quality care, and processes for managing risks, issues and performance.

Whilst we did not find any breaches of the regulations, there were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the arrangements for quality improvement activity, including a regular programme of completed audits.
• Review the facilities in place to monitor the temperature of the fridge and consider the usefulness of a back-up thermometer .

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care