Vaccination UK Limited

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Vaccination UK Limited on 27 March 2018. We found that this service was not providing safe and well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations. Requirement notices were served in relation to breaches identified under Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 Good governance and Regulation 18 Staffing. We carried out an announced focused inspection on 20 November 2018 to check on the areas identified in the previous requirement notices. We told the provider that they should:

• Continue to review the system in place to ensure documentary evidence of appropriate recruitment checks for staff members has been obtained.
• Continue to review the system in place to ensure personal developments plans are in place for all appropriate staff members.
• Continue to develop positive relationships between senior staff and teams and establish clear methods of communications across all staff locations.

The full comprehensive report on the March 2018 inspection and the focused report on the November 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Vaccination UK Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Vaccination UK Limited as part of our inspection programme.

Vaccination UK Limited is a private clinic providing travel health advice, travel and non-travel vaccines, blood tests for antibody screening and travel medicines such as anti-malarial medicines to children and adults. In addition, the clinic holds a licence to administer yellow fever vaccines.

Vaccination UK Limited is also commissioned to the NHS in the provision of child immunisation services.

This location is registered with CQC in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by, or under the supervision of, a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines for the purposes of travel health.

The clinic is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Two clinical directors and a lead nurse are the registered managers. 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for Care Quality Commission comment cards to be completed by clients prior to our inspection and we spoke with clients during our inspection. We received feedback from 10 people about the service. All of the feedback we received was positive about the standard of care received. Clients told us that they were satisfied with the care and treatment provided and staff were knowledgeable, friendly, professional and caring.

Our key findings were:

• The provider had systems, processes and practices in place to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse in most cases.
• Lessons were shared to make sure action was taken to improve safety in the service.
• Staff had the information they needed to deliver care and treatment to clients.
• The service had reliable systems for appropriate and safe handling of medicines.
• Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance and had access to the most up to date information.
• Clients received an individualised travel risk assessment, health information including additional health risks related to their destinations and a written immunisation plan specific to them.
• Staff worked together and when necessary with other health professionals to deliver effective care and treatment.
• We saw staff treated clients with kindness and respect, and maintained client and information confidentiality.
• Information for clients about the services available was easy to understand and accessible.
• The provider understood its client profile and had used this to meet their needs.
• Information about how to complain was available and evidence from examples we reviewed showed the service responded quickly to issues raised.
• The service had a clear vision and strategy and staff were clear about the vision and their responsibilities in relation to it.
• There was a leadership structure and staff felt supported by management. The service had policies and procedures to govern activity and held regular governance meetings. However, not all governance structures, systems and processes were effective in enabling the provider to identify, assess and mitigate risks to clients, staff and others.

The area where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulation is:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The area where the provider should make improvements is:

• Consider reviewing the information available on the website.

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