Archived: Immunisation and Medical Centre - Birmingham

Updated 18 February 2016

The Children’s Immunisation Centre in Birmingham is part of The Children’s Immunisation Centre Ltd. This is a private company which operates nationally with five other centres in the UK offering a range of vaccinations for children and adults against the following illness; Measles and Rubella, chicken pox, Meningitis B and Meningitis ACWY The Meningitis ACWY vaccine is given by a single injection into the upper arm and protects against four different causes of meningitis and septicaemia – meningococcal (Men) A, C, W and Y diseases. The company also offers travel vaccinations.  

Updated 18 February 2016

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We carried out an unannounced focussed inspection at the Children’s Immunisation Clinic in Birmingham on 10 October 2015. At our previous inspections on 15 June 2013 and 18 January 2014 we found the provider was not compliant with a number of essential standards.. The provider sent us an action plan that stated they would be compliant with all of the standards by 26 April 2014. We inspected the clinic again on 28 June 2014 to check whether necessary improvements had been made. However we found that the practice was in breach of Regulation 20 HSCA 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 records. We undertook this focused inspection on October 10 to check the practice had followed their plan and to confirm that they now met legal requirements This report only covers our findings in relation to this requirement.

Our key findings across the areas we inspected were as follows:

• We found that the medicines were in date and safe to use however, the practice did not correctly monitor the temperature of the fridge and therefore cold chain procedures were not robust.
• Although risks to patients who used services were assessed, the systems and processes to address these risks were not implemented well enough to ensure patients were kept safe.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• Ensure that patient records are kept updated on the system with full clinical details of vaccination histories for each patient and ensure that this information is available for clinicians at the satellite clinic

• Ensure fridge temperatures are recorded correctly, in line with national guidance, to ensure robust maintenance of the cold chain.

Professor Steve Field (CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP) 

Chief Inspector of General Practice

Updated 18 February 2016

We saw that the manager and the Doctor working at the clinic recognised children as individuals. The children were greeted by name and were treated with dignity and respect. We saw that the Doctor involved the children in their treatment and gained consent from their parents prior to any vaccination being given.

However, whilst there were systems in place to identify patients at risk of harm from receiving inappropriate and unsafe care, these were not always robust. For example, the cold chain policy was not always followed in line with company policy and procedures. Furthermore, there were also some inaccuracies identified in patient records.