Clarewell Clinics

Updated 10 November 2023

Clarewell Clinics are a private specialist clinic dedicated to sexual and reproductive healthcare. The team of experienced experts understand that sexual health is an important aspect of overall wellbeing and human connection.

At Clarewell, they offer a comprehensive range of services tailored to meet the diverse needs of sexually active individuals. From the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, to genital dermatology, family planning and contraception. This includes pregnancy testing, unplanned pregnancy counselling, early medical abortion, early surgical abortion, abortion aftercare, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, contraceptive advice, and contraception supply.

The Birmingham clinic had recently commenced termination of pregnancy, both medical and surgical.

Regulated activities carried out by Clarewell Clinics were:

• Treatment of disease, disorder, and injury
• Termination of pregnancy
• Surgical procedure
• Family planning
• Diagnostic imaging.

The service had not been inspected or rated before this inspection.

The location has a manager registered with Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The main service provided by this service was outpatients. Where our findings on termination of pregnancy, for example, management arrangements also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the outpatient’s service.

Updated 10 November 2023

We have not previously inspected or rated this service. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.
• Staff provided good care and treatment and gave patients pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information. Key services were available 6 days a week.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to continually improving services.

However, we found that:

• Room temperature checks were not completed where medicines were stored.
• Risks were not always identified, mitigated and documented on the service’s risk register.
• There was not a systematic approach to audits within the clinic. They were performed on an ad hoc basis when risk was identified. They did not check up on their performance using audit. This meant that there was a chance that poor performance or risks could be missed.
• The service did not store pregnancy remains safely and securely.
• On the first inspection in April 2023, we found that the medicines room was not locked, and emergency medicines were not locked away. In October 2023, this had been addressed and the medicines were stored in a locked room and emergency medicines were locked away.
• In April 2023, we found that curtains had not been changed in the lesser used clinic room since February 2022, there were no fire escape signs in the main corridors and staff did not have access to an emergency call bell in the treatment rooms; all of these had been resolved by our visit in October 2023.

Updated 10 November 2023

We rated it as good see the summary above for details.

Updated 10 November 2023

We rated it as good see the summary above for details.