Updated 18 September 2019
Fleet Street (known as Blackfriars) is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and is part of London Doctors Clinic Limited, which was founded in 2014 and is an independent provider of private general practitioner services across 15 locations across London. The service is located in a large serviced office building in Ludgate House, 107-111 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2AB. Only this location was visited as part of this inspection.
The service is registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities: Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury, Diagnostic and Screening Services and Maternity and Midwifery services.
The provider rents two consultation rooms and a reception area at Fleet Street. The clinic is open Monday to Friday between 9.00am and 5.30pm. Appointments are available between 9am and 5.15pm. The clinic is not open at weekends however, patients can access a number of other local London Doctors Clinics that are open at weekends. The service does not offer out of hours services on the premises. Approximately 1500 patients are seen across all 15 sites per week.
Services at the clinic are offered on a booked appointment only basis and include GP consultation; blood tests; allergy treatments; medicals; specialist referrals, sporting medical certificates; immigration and visa medicals; travel services; health screening; imaging, investigations and procedures, medications and prescriptions and sexual health services.
Appointments can be made by using a central telephone number, or through an online booking system accessible through the provider website. Video consultations are available if requested. Patients can book appointments on the same day or up to a week in advance. The provider told us that 40% of appointments at this location were for certificates (insurance and work purposes) and medicals, the remaining 60% of patients seen are treated for minor acute illness. On average between 40 to 50% of patients return to the service.
The only clinical staff employed at the service are general practitioners (GPs) who have previous experience working within the NHS. Each separate site has a Clinic Manager who also carries out site management, administrative and reception duties and is supported by a corporate team which includes dedicated management, governance, quality assurance and administrative functions.
Further details about the service can be found on the provider website: www.londondoctorsclinic.co.uk
How we inspected this service:
We reviewed information about the service in advance of our inspection visit. This included:
- Data and other information we held about the service.
- Material we requested and received directly from the service ahead of the inspection.
- Information available on the service’s website.
- Patient feedback and reviews accessible on various websites.
During the visit we spoke with the clinic manager, a clinical director who is a GP and a GP who was working on the day of the inspection. We gained feedback from nine completed CQC comment cards and discussions held with a patient. We carried out observations, reviewed the systems in place for the running of the service, including how clinical decisions were made, sampled key policies and procedures and looked at a selection of anonymised patient records.
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.