25 September 2018
During an inspection looking at part of the service
In January 2018 we undertook a comprehensive inspection at Apodi Healthcare Limited and found the provider was providing effective, caring, responsive and well-led services, but they needed to make improvements in the provision of safe services. We issued a requirement notice and the provider informed us they would make the required improvements.
We carried out an announced focussed follow up inspection on 24 September 2018 to ask the service the following key question; Are services safe.
We found that this service was providing safe 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.
At the last inspection the provider was in breach of regulation 12 Safe Care and Treatment due to a lack of system to identify and act on safety alerts. We also recommended the provider to consider their infection control monitoring systems and their adherence to the Equalities Act (2010) At this inspection we found the necessary improvements had been made.
Apodi Healthcare Limited provide care to patients via NHS services both in the community and hospital outpatient care. They support patients receiving medicines under specific programmes sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. The programmes are negotiated directly between NHS providers and the pharmaceutical companies, and the latter offer Apodi Healthcare Limited’s services to NHS providers to undertake the monitoring and support of patients on these programmes.
A registered manager was in post. 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:
- The provider had implemented a system to ensure medicine alerts were shared with staff and acted on where necessary.
- There were new infection control procedures in place and plans to undertake supervision with staff in order to audit their implementation.
- There had been consideration of the Equalities Act (2010) and that staff needed to follow the protocols belonging to the provider’s they worked at.
Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice