Archived: MASTA Travel Clinic - Liverpool

Updated 18 December 2017

The head office for the provider MASTA Limited (Medical Advisory Services for Travellers Abroad) is based in Leeds. They have many pharmacy and nurse-led travel clinics located throughout England, Wales and Ireland and have been established for over 30 years.

For this inspection we visited the location at MASTA Travel Clinic Liverpool, based with the STA travel store, situated within Liverpool city centre .Opening hours for the Liverpool MASTA clinic are 10am to 6pm Monday and 11am to 7pm Thursday. The clinic is also open on alternate Wednesday and Saturdays 10am to 6pm. Patients could contact customer services when the clinic was closed. The service sees on average seven patients per day.

MASTA Travel Clinic Liverpool provides a comprehensive travel service including pre-travel assessments, travel vaccinations and travel health advice. All services incur a consultation charge to the client. Treatment and intervention charges vary, dependent upon what is provided. The service is also a registered Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre.

Why we carried out this inspection

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of this service under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and to look at the overall quality of the service.

How we carried out this inspection

Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead Inspector and a Nurse Specialist Advisor.

We inspected this service on 20 November 2017. During our visit we:

• Spoke with two members of staff.

• Reviewed documents and policies.
• Looked at the computer system for record keeping and staff information.
• Reviewed patient survey information.

The service provided background information which was reviewed prior to the inspection. We did not receive any information of concern from other organisations.

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 18 December 2017

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 20 November 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.

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.

MASTA Travel Clinic Liverpool provides pre-travel assessments, travel vaccinations and travel health advice.

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 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. Those occupational health related services provided to clients under a contractual arrangement through their employer or government department are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, they did not fall into the scope of our inspection.

As part of our inspection we asked for Care Quality Commission comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection visit. We received 17 comment cards, all of which were positive about the standard of care received.

Our key findings in respect of the regulations were:

• Systems were in place to protect people from avoidable harm and abuse. When mistakes occurred lessons were learned.
• There were effective arrangements in place for the management of vaccines and medicines.
• The service had arrangements in place to respond to medical emergencies.
• Staff were aware of current evidence based guidance. Staff had been trained to provide them with the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patient survey information and Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards reviewed indicated that patients were very satisfied with the service they received. Patients commented that they were treated with compassion, dignity and respect and were involved in their care and decisions about their treatment.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management and worked very well together as a team.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the duty of candour.

• There was an additional safety mechanism on the service’s computer system which preselected the actual vaccinations to be given to ensure only in date vaccinations were administered and correct serial numbers recorded.

• Patients were given a travel health passport that contained a record of any vaccinations, useful information and contacts for when they were abroad. This included advice about drinking water and food and what to do if a patient was bitten by animals or insects.