The Surgery

Updated 16 August 2019

Visiting Doctor Services Ltd 1 Warwick Gardens, London Road, Thornton Heath CR7 7NA is an independent provider of medical services and treats adults and children over three years of age in and around London. The service is led by the registered manager. Registered managers have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run. The premises houses an NHS dental service which is also operated by the same registered manager.

The provider offers face to face consultations and examinations at the clinic and during visits to people in their home or other places that they are staying such as hotels or care homes. Services are available to people on a pre-booked appointment basis. The service informed us that they see approximately 40 patients a month.

The service employs one doctor who is the medical director.

The clinic has a reception and waiting area and one consulting room used by this service.

Visiting Doctor Services is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activity treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

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 16 August 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 7 March 2018 - Unrated)

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 Surgery on 20 June 2019 to follow up on breaches of Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

CQC inspected the service on 7 March 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding managing medicines and safety alerts, communication with NHS GPs, staff training and quality improvement. We checked these areas as part of this inspection and all of these had been resolved except staff training.

The provider offers face to face consultations and examinations at the clinic and during visits to people (UK and overseas patients) in their home or other places that they are staying such as hotels or care homes. The service informed us that the majority of the patients they see are from overseas and they rarely used the clinic to see patients.

The 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.

We received four Care Quality Commission comments cards from patients; all were positive about the service experienced.

Our key findings were :

• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen.
• The service had systems in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from abuse and staff we spoke with knew how to identify and report safeguarding concerns. Staff received safeguarding training relevant to their role.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff we spoke to were aware of current evidence-based guidelines and they had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Consent procedures were in line with legal requirements.
• Systems were in place to protect personal information about patients.
• The service proactively gathered feedback from patients.
• There was a focus on learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review systems to check expiry dates of blood test bottles.
• Review arrangements in place for chaperones.
• Review oversight of staff update training.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care