Archived: Vaccination UK Limited

Updated 18 March 2019

Vaccination UK Limited was established in the UK in 2007 and provides services from their head office located at 21a Brand Street, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1JE. The service is located on the first floor and there is one treatment room, a consulting room, a reception and waiting area and staff offices.

The service offers travel vaccination and related health care advice, private medical consultations, medical screening examinations and women’s health services.

The clinical director is the registered manager. (A registered manager is an individual registered with CQC to manage the regulated activities provided).

The service operates a satellite clinic, approximately one to two times a week, from The Elms Consulting Rooms clinic in St Albans. We did not visit the satellite clinic as part of this inspection. Vaccination UK Limited sees approximately 4,000 clients a year between the two clinics.

The service is also commissioned to provide the school aged vaccination programme in Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and nine London Boroughs (seven in North East London and two in North Central London). The service has also been commissioned by Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust to deliver the flu vaccination programme in all schools across Hertfordshire.

The service is open between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday and appointments with a travel nurse are available between 9am and 3pm on Mondays, between 8am and 2pm on Tuesdays, between 9am and 1pm on Wednesdays, from 11am and extended to 7pm on Thursdays, between 9am and 1pm on Fridays and from 9am to 2pm on Saturdays. Appointments with a GP are available between 1pm and 5pm on Wednesdays.

We inspected the service on 20 November 2018. The inspection was carried out by a CQC inspector.

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service. We also asked the service to distribute an electronic questionnaire to staff members for feedback. During our visit we spoke with the Clinical Director, Clinical and Operations Director, two managers and a travel nurse.

Updated 18 March 2019

We carried out an announced focused inspection on 20 November 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe 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 well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led 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.

CQC inspected the service on 27 March 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements. Requirement Notices were served in relation to breaches identified under Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment, Regulation 17: Good Governance and Regulation 18: Staffing. We checked these areas as part of this focused inspection and found they had been resolved and that the regulatory requirements were now being met.

Vaccination UK Limited is a private clinic providing travel health advice, travel and non-travel vaccines, blood tests for antibody screening and travel medicines such as anti-malarial medicines to children and adults. In addition, the clinic holds a licence to administer yellow fever vaccines.

Vaccination UK Limited is also commissioned to the NHS in the provision of child immunisation services.

This location is registered with CQC 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 health.

The clinic is registered with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The Clinical Director 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:

• Lessons were shared to make sure action was taken to improve safety across the service.
• There were risk assessments in relation to safety issues.
• Staff recruitment checks, induction, essential training, appraisals and supervision was recorded and undertaken in a timely manner, in most cases.
• There was a leadership structure and staff felt supported by management.
• Structures, processes and systems to support good governance and management were clearly set out, understood and effective.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Continue to review the system in place to ensure documentary evidence of appropriate recruitment checks for staff members has been obtained.
• Continue to review the system in place to ensure personal developments plans are in place for all appropriate staff members.
• Continue to develop positive relationships between senior staff and teams and establish clear methods of communications across all staff locations.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGPChief Inspector of General Practice