Pure Sports Medicine (Chancery Lane)

Updated 1 December 2021

Pure Sports Medicine (Chancery Lane) has been operating since January 2018 from its registered premises at 36 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1EN. It is registered by the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities Diagnostic and screening procedures and

Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The clinic occupies the ground and lower ground floors and is accessible at street level and has lift access to the lower ground floor. The clinic has consultation rooms, a patient waiting area, a gym, changing facilities, staffing areas and treatment rooms. There are good transport links with regular buses and local tube stations.

The clinic provides pre-bookable and walk-in private appointments for adults and children (over the age of 8) for musculoskeletal and sports related concerns, injuries and advice and for rheumatologic conditions. Initial consultation appointments are 40 minutes, follow up appointments are 25 minutes. Patients can either have a face to face appointment or a video consultation.

An initial assessment process is undertaken by a Sports and Exercise Medicine Consultant or a Rheumatology Consultant with a second consultation to discuss the findings of their assessment and the results of any investigations. A ​management plan is then established with clear goals and objectives identified that includes any recommended lifestyle changes required to achieve these goals.

Patients seen at the service are either private patients or employees of organisations who are provided with health and wellbeing services as part of their employee benefit package. The services are provided privately and are not commissioned by the National Health Service.

The service is available Monday-Friday 8am to 7pm. The clinic is closed on weekends and patients who need to contact the clinic outside of the core business hours are given out of hours contact details.

How we inspected this service

During our inspection we:

• Spoke with a consultant in sport and exercise medicine and the senior clinical administrator remotely through video conferencing.

During our site visit we:

• Spoke with staff (a consultant rheumatologist, the medical director, the clinical director, the operations manager, the practice manager and two administrative and reception staff).
• Reviewed personnel files, practice policies and procedures and other records concerned with running 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 1 December 2021

This service is rated as Good overall.

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 Pure Sports Medicine (Chancery Lane) on 03 November 2021 as part of our inspection programme.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in and of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Pure Sports Medicine (Chancery Lane) is part of a chain of sports medical clinics situated within London.

The clinic provides a range of services (mainly for adults) including physiological and lifestyle assessments, physiotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, podiatry, massage therapy, Pilates, occupational therapy, diet and nutrition and appointments with consultants in Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM consultants) and Rheumatology and a doctor led COVID-19 rehabilitation service. Services such as physiotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, podiatry and massage therapy, Pilates and occupational therapy are not within CQC’s scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services. This inspection focussed on the services provided by the SEM Consultants, Rheumatology Consultants and a doctor led COVID-19 rehabilitation service for patients with prolonged fatigue and reduced exercise tolerance.

The Operations Manager is the 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.

Our key findings were:

• Staff had been trained with the skills and knowledge to deliver safe care and treatment. Clinical staff were aware of current evidence-based guidance.
• Information about the range of services and fees were available. Complaints information was displayed in the clinics; however, there was no complaints leaflet for patients.
• The service conducted quality improvement activity to improve patient outcomes.
• The service gave patients the ability to view their treatment plan online via secure access.
• There was a system in place to receive safety alerts issued by government departments such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
• Patient feedback was important to the service and was used to improve services provided.
• Clinical information with other relevant healthcare providers was shared in a timely manner (subject to patient consent).
• Staff told us that they were happy to work for the service.
• The service had an administrative governance structure in place, which was adhered to through a range of policies and procedures which were regularly reviewed.
• There was a clear vision and strategy, along with a strong governance framework in place which includes all key policies and guidance.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Action all the recommendations following the health and safety risk assessment and infection prevention and control audit.
• Stock all the emergency medicines or assess the risk this may pose.
• Undertake regular fire drills.
• Include escalation information in response letter to complaints.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care