The Men's Health Clinic Also known as Preventative Health Doctors Limited

Updated 11 November 2019

The Men’ Health Clinic is a private fee-paying preventative health clinic primarily for men over the age of 30 years located at The Men’s Health Clinic, 9-10 Longham Business Park, 168 Ringwood Road, Ferndown, Dorset, BH22 9BU. The building is new and purposely designed to offer the services.

The clinic is open on Monday to Friday between the hours of 8:30am and 1:30pm. Patients have the option of being seen at the clinic or at home on special request. Follow up appointments are also available through skype.

The clinic provides the regulated activities of: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostics and screening. Further information about the service can be found at www.themenshealthclinic.co.uk.

The clinic was set up in January 2016. Its primary focus is diagnosing male hypogonadism and treating men with Testosterone Replacement Therapy where indicated. They also provide diagnostic services for nutritional deficiencies to provide a more holistic approach to patient care. Their focus is on prevention rather than cure so that men can lead both active and healthy lifestyles.

The service is led by two directors, a General Practitioner and a co-director. The provider/director of the company also has post graduate diplomas in Fitness & personal training. He is also a member of the British, European and International Societies of Sexual Medicine and The Society for The Study of Androgen Deficiency.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector and a GP specialised advisor. The methods that were used at this inspection included speaking with the provider, interviewing staff, observations and review of documents.

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 11 November 2019

We carried out an announced comprehensive at The Men’s Health Clinic as part of our inspection programme.

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.

This service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (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 service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

The service is registered for the provision of treatment and advice by a medical practitioner. The primary aim of the clinic is to support and treat males with low testosterone levels through testosterone deficiency syndrome (TDS) and provide testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) where needed.

The Medical Director 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.

We reviewed a sample of 89 feedback emails provided on the day of inspection and spoke with one client. Feedback was positive, describing the service as being professional, caring and informative. Clients stated they were given information to allow for an informed decision and details of what the treatments would include.

Our key findings were:

• Staff had the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to deliver the care and treatment offered by the service.
• Medicines and emergency equipment were safely managed.
• The service was offered on a private, fee paying basis only.
• The practice had facilities and was well equipped to treat patients and meet their needs.
• Patients received full and detailed explanations and costs of any treatment options.
• The service had systems in place to identify, investigate and learn from incidents relating to the safety of patients and staff members.
• There were effective governance processes in place.
• There was an infection prevention and control policy; and procedures were in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• There were clear systems in place to receive, manage and learn from complaints.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care