We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 25 October 2017 to ask the service the following key questions: are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Background

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.

Regent Street Clinic Sheffield is an independent provider of GP services owned by FBA Medical Ltd. The clinic offers privately funded services to patients who resided in Sheffield and the surrounding areas and other areas of England who required their services. The clinic offers a range of specialist services and treatments, to patients on both a walk-in and pre-bookable appointment basis. For example, facial aesthetics, travel vaccinations, sexual health screening, occupational health and offshore medical services.

FBA Medical provides services at other locations in Leicester, Leeds, Nottingham and Derby.

The clinic is based in the city centre of Sheffield. The property consists of a patient waiting room and a reception area on the ground floor. With two consulting rooms on the first floor of the property. There is on street car parking outside the practice and a nearby NCP car park is available for patients.

The clinician is a member of the Independent Doctors Federation (IDF). The IDF is a designated body with its own Responsible Officers. The clinic is an accredited yellow fever centre, which is registered with NATHNaC (National Travel Health Network and Centre).

The owner works at the clinic as the GP, (male). In addition, there is a practice manager who was also the registered manager and a receptionist who covered both the Sheffield and Nottingham clinics.

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.

The practice is open three days a week on:-

Monday 5pm to 7pm

Wednesday 9am to12 pm

Friday 3pm to 7pm

The practice was not required to offer an out-of-hours service.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 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. At Regent Street Clinic the aesthetic cosmetic treatments that are also provided are exempt by law from CQC regulation.

The registered provider told us that the proportion of their work was:

• Private general GP work 11%
• Travel vaccines and advice 52%
• Facial aesthetics 19%
• Sexual health 8%
• Occupational health 6%
• Medical examinations 3%
• Sheffield clinic did not provide alcohol detoxification services.
• As part of our inspection we reviewed 13 Care Quality Commission comment cards where patients and members of the public shared their views and experiences of the service. All of the 13 comment cards we received were positive about the service experienced. People stated they had received a friendly caring and helpful service from the staff at all times. Comments made were ‘the doctor listened to what I wanted’ and ‘the doctor was very informative’.

Our key findings were:

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• Patients care and treatment was planned and delivered in line with evidence based guidelines, standards, best practice and current legislation.

• The practice shared information with NHS GP services and general NHS hospital services when necessary and with the consent of the patient.

• The practice had evidence of quality improvement through clinical audits that were relevant to the clinic.

   

• Patients reported good access to appointments with the GP and that there was continuity of care.

• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand. Limited complaints had been made.

• Regent Street Clinic had a clear vision to deliver high quality care and promote good outcomes for patients.

• Staff were clear about the vision and their responsibilities in relation to this.

• The clinic encouraged a culture of openness and honesty.

• The clinic proactively sought feedback from patients which it acted on.

• The provider had recently purchased a data base to enable them to keep up to date with all appropriate policies and procedures, during our visit we found that the  provider had not yet embedded the new policies and procedures or updated them to reflect the clinic activity.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The provider should carry out a risk assessment for the provision of medicines for use in a medical emergency.