Archived: Dr A I McKenzie

Updated 27 July 2022

Dr A I McKenzie is an independent GP who provides privately funded care from a surgery located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire at:

• 172 Whitham Road, Broomhill, Sheffield, S10 2SR

The provider is registered with CQC to deliver the Regulated Activities; services in slimming clinics; treatment of disease, disorder or injury; and diagnostic and screening procedures.

Key services offered include private GP consultations to a small number (approximately 50) of regular local people. Occupational health assessments which fall into regulation where they are privately funded. Occupational health assessments provided directly for an employer for an employed person are exempt from regulation. Also provided is a small travel vaccination service.

The service did not routinely see people under the age of 18.

Dr McKenzie is supported at the surgery by a secretary who also acts as a receptionist. There are also cleaning staff employed by the provider. Appointments are available between 8.30am and 12pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

How we inspected this service

This inspection was led by a CQC inspector, who was supported on-site by a GP specialist adviser. The team were supported remotely by a CQC medicines inspector.

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 27 July 2022

This service is rated as Inadequate overall.

The key questions are rated as:

• Are services safe? – Inadequate
• Are services effective? – Requires improvement
• Are services caring? – Requires improvement
• Are services responsive? – Good
• Are services well-led? – Inadequate

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Dr A I McKenzie between 7 and 23 June 2022 as part of our inspection programme. We last inspected this location on 11 June 2018 but did not award a rating following this inspection.

Dr A I McKenzie is an independent GP who provides privately funded care from a surgery located in Broomhill, Sheffield. Services offered include private GP consultations, occupational health assessments, and a travel vaccination service.

This service 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 general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At Dr A I McKenzie, certain services are provided to patients under arrangements made by their employer. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, at Dr A I McKenzie, we were only able to inspect the services which are not arranged for patients by their employers.

Our key findings were:

• The service did not have systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse; systems to assess and manage risks to patient safety were ineffective; the service did not have reliable systems for the appropriate and safe handling of medicines; and the service did not always learn and make improvements when things went wrong.
• There was limited involvement in quality improvement activity; there was not a coordinated approach with other organisations to deliver effective care and treatment; and patient records did not always provide an accurate and contemporaneous record of all care and treatment decisions. However, staff were consistent and proactive in empowering patients and supporting them to manage their own health.
• Where patients did not always speak English it could not be assured that they were always involved in decisions about care and treatment as the service did not offer patients any interpreters, translators or chaperones when required. There was also no process in place to collect and review patient feedback. However, patients were treated with kindness, respect and compassion and patient’s privacy and dignity were respected.
• The service organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs; patients were able to access care and treatment when required; and the service took complaints and concerns seriously. However, disabled access arrangements required improvement and there was no information relating to how to make a complaint available in the surgery or the website.
• Governance and management processes were limited; and processes for the management of risks, issues and performance were ineffective. The service did not act on all appropriate and accurate information; the service did not involve patients and external partners in their service; and there was a limited focus on continuous improvement and innovation.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients
• Ensure patients are protected from abuse and improper treatment
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure information is easily available to patients on how to raise a complaint about their care and treatment.

We will add full information about our regulatory response to the concerns we have described to a final version of this report, which we will publish in due course.

I am placing this service in special measures. Services placed in special measures will be inspected again within six months. If insufficient improvements have been made such that there remains a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures to begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This will lead to cancelling their registration or to varying the terms of their registration within six months if they do not improve.

The service will be kept under review and if needed could be escalated to urgent enforcement action. Where necessary, another inspection will be conducted within a further six months, and if there is not enough improvement we will move to close the service by adopting our proposal to remove this location or cancel the provider’s registration.

Special measures will give people who use the service the reassurance that the care they get should improve.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care