Private GP Services

Updated 15 July 2019

Private GP Services (UK) LTD was established in 2001.

The service is provided within the private Springfield Hospital premises at:

Lawn Lane

Springfield

Chelmsford

Essex

CM1 7GU

Website: https://www.privategpservices.co.uk

• Their services are provided from the Springfield Hospital premises in Chelmsford and a branch location from the private Oaks Hospital in Colchester. We did not visit the branch location during our inspection.
• They provide acute and limited chronic care, general practice tests, referrals for imaging and referrals to consultants, medical screening, insurance and company medicals, travel clinic and vaccinations, and primary care services for overseas patients (Non-NHS fee paying patients).
• There are three GP partners (female) and four regular locums (one male and three females) working at the service. The six administrative and reception team members were subcontracted to support the service.
• The service is registered for the regulated activities; treatment of disease, disorder and or injury, and diagnostic and screening procedures at both their locations.
• The service provides 150 hours of consultation time each week, with appointments available; Monday to Thursday 8.30am until 8pm and on Friday 8.30am until 5pm.
• The service has registered and seen over 45,000 patients since it established 18 years ago. The service sees approximately 4,500 patients each year.

We inspected the service on 19th March 2019. Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector. The team included a CQC Inspection GP specialist adviser.

Before visiting:

We gathered and reviewed over fifty patient experience surveys sent to us through our public website and these were all extremely positive about the service. We also reviewed a range of information we hold about the service.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with the GPs, and members of the administration team.
• Reviewed the personal care or treatment records of patients.
• Reviewed comment cards where patients and members of the public shared their views and experiences of the service.

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 15 July 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 19 March 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.

The service provides independent non-NHS patient fee paid private primary care within an independent non-NHS private hospital setting.

A senior GP at the service is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered services, 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 received 42 Care Quality Commission comment cards, and all of these were extremely positive about the care, service, and positive outcomes that patients had received. We spoke with three people during the inspection that also provided very positive feedback about the service.

Our key findings were:

• We saw strong clinical leadership within the service and the team worked in a united, supportive, and open manner.
• There was an effective system in place for reporting and recording significant events.
• Information about the service and how to complain was available and easy to understand. We found the service had acted appropriately, responded to complaints with an apology, and provided a full explanation.
• The service was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
• All staff requiring it for their role had received a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
• Risks to patients were assessed and well managed.
• Actions had been taken when medicine alerts were received by the service. However, they lacked an audit trail to evidence the work.
• The service held a comprehensive central register of policies and procedures which were easily accessible to all staff.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence based guidance.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge, and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• All patients told us they were treated with compassion, dignity, respect, and involved in the care and decisions about their treatment.
• The service had good facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• We saw relevant emergency medicines and equipment were available.
• The service proactively sought feedback from staff and patients, which it acted on. Regular surveys were undertaken and reports collated from the findings and action taken where required.
• The service worked closely with an external organisation to promote men’s health checks at local events.

The area where the provider should make improvements are:

• Maintain the activities within the action plan, provided by the service on the day of inspection, to provide an audit trail of work.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care