Oviva UK Ltd

Updated 15 December 2022

Oviva UK Ltd are an online (digital) company that provide a range of health interventions, including weight management. Whilst the company was founded in 2014, Oviva UK Ltd became registered with the CQC in January 2022 when they started offering regulated activity.

Oviva UK Ltd is contracted by some NHS organisations to provide tier 3 weight management services in England. (A tier 3 weight management service is a specialist NHS referral service for people who would like to lose weight and fit certain criteria.)

All patients must be referred to Oviva UK Ltd by their own GP. Once a GP referral is received, the patient is invited to download the Oviva application onto their smart phone. The patient is then contacted within 48 hours and if appropriate, they are enrolled onto the service. The initial intervention phase lasts 12 weeks and focuses on diet and lifestyle interventions. This phase involves assessments with a dietitian, a health coach and a GP. If the patient is suitable, they can then go on to receive prescribed medication.

The head office of Oviva UK Ltd is located within the 20 St Thomas Street building, which is close to London Bridge. Oviva UK Ltd provides dietary advice and organises the provision of prescription medicines to their patients. The service is completely remote, and all regulated activity is delivered via the Oviva phone application or via telephone consultation.

The service employs a range of staff including a GP, a specialist nurse prescriber, dietitians, health coaches and administrative staff. The service is available from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and consultations are delivered during pre-booked appointments. Staff either work from one of the provider’s offices, or from their own homes. The registered manager was available at all times when the clinic was open.

How we inspected this service

We spoke to the registered manager, managing director, compliance manager, head of quality, a patient pathway coordinator associate team manager and a patient pathway coordinator. We also spoke with two patients and reviewed a range of documents.

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 15 December 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 Oviva UK Ltd as part of our inspection programme, and to rate the service. Oviva UK Ltd 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 exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Oviva UK Ltd provides a range of interventions, for example, adult nutrition support, paediatric cow’s milk allergy service and diabetes prevention programme support. These are not within the CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

One of the doctors working in the service 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.

Two people provided feedback about the service by speaking with us and their comments were positive. They felt that staff were supportive, thoroughly understood their needs and motivated them. In addition, they appreciated the variety of information available.

Our key findings were:

• Robust quality assurance systems ensured that the service was being continually monitored and improved.
• A proactive approach to anticipating and managing risks to people who use the service was embedded and recognised as the responsibility of all staff.
• People without access to smart phones or where English was not their first language were supported to access the service.
• Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of services. They understood the challenges and were addressing them.
• The provider had a dedicated team who encouraged staff to share innovative ideas for the improvement of the service.

We saw the following outstanding practice:

The provider had undertaken a study and shared the outcome data at a national obesity conference.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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