Archived: The Smart Clinics - South Kensington

Updated 27 September 2022

The provider, Smart Medical Clinics Limited, provides private general practice services from four locations in London: The Smart Clinics - South Kensington, The Smart Clinics - Hollywood Road, The Smart Clinics Wandsworth and The Smart Medical Clinics - Wandsworth North.

This inspection concerned The Smart Clinics - South Kensington, located at 30 Thurloe Place, London, SW7 2JE.

This location was registered with the CQC in April 2020 to provide the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures, Family planning, Surgical procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The service provides private consultations with a general practitioner at the registered location and via telephone and video conferencing. Service users can access a wide range of blood tests and diagnostic screening via third-party organisations. The service is available to children and adults.

The service is open Monday to Thursday from 9am to 6pm, Friday from 9am to 5pm, and one Saturday per month from 9am to 12pm (shared rota with other clinics). Appointments can be booked by telephone.

Details of the service are set out on the website - www.thesmartclinics.co.uk

Staff are shared across all four of the provider’s locations and comprise of four GPs (male and female), four health advisers, five managers and five reception/administration staff.

How we inspected this service

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Conducting staff interviews with a GP, clinical team manager, health adviser and two reception/administrative staff using video conferencing.
• Reviewing a sample of service user records and consultations using video conferencing and discussing findings with the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A short site visit.

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 27 September 2022

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 The Smart Clinics - South Kensington as part of our inspection programme. It was the first inspection of this location, which was registered by the CQC in April 2020.

The service offers consultations with a general practitioner. In addition, the service provides blood tests, diagnostic screening and referrals to specialists under arrangements with third-party service providers.

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 general 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. At The Smart Clinics - South Kensington services are provided to patients under arrangements made by their employer or an insurance provider with whom the service user holds an insurance policy other than a standard health insurance policy. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, at The Smart Clinics - South Kensington, we were only able to inspect the services which are not arranged for patients by their employers or an insurance provider with whom the patient holds a policy other than a standard health insurance policy.

A service 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:

• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the provider learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• The service had systems and processes in place to ensure that patients were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and they were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• The service had systems in place to collect and analyse feedback from patients.
• There was a clear leadership structure to support good governance and management.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Review the fire risk assessment to ensure risks related to escape routes are mitigated.
• Maintain consistent and comprehensive records of staff immunity / vaccination history.
• Review the systems for auditing consultations notes and antibiotic prescribing and continue working towards completed clinical audit cycles.
• Consider installing a hearing induction loop to assist patients and visitors who use a hearing aid.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services