Updated 1 November 2019
Q doctor was registered with CQC on 6 September 2017. Q doctor is an online GP consultation service to patients who have signed up to Carerooms. Carerooms is a service which enables people to be discharged from hospital back into the community into hosted accommodation with additional support. People who use the services of Carerooms can choose to pay for access to the Q doctor service. This allows patients to consult with a GP via video link. Patients can access the service via a computer tablet device provided by Carerooms. However, we were told that this online service had not yet been utilised by anyone as part of the Carerooms service.
At our last inspection the service offered direct private video consultations where members of the public could sign up directly to access Q doctor on a per consultation fee or subscription basis. The service was also available in some pharmacies where video consultations were undertaken in a private room at the pharmacy. The provider had undertaken 31 private video consultations via these channels since the last inspection. However, these services were no longer operational at the time of this inspection and the only aspect of the service that fell within the remit of CQC regulation were the consultations provided via Carerooms.
Prescriptions generated as a result of any consultations are sent electronically to the provider’s nominated pharmacy. The pharmacy then sends the prescription to the patient by post.
The service also provides an online GP locum service, whereby GP practices pay for a locum session with one of the service’s GPs, which is carried-out via video link. When Q doctor is delivering this aspect of its service, care for patients is delivered under the governance arrangements of the commissioning GP practice who retain responsibility for the care provided, with Q doctor acting as a locum agency; therefore, we did not inspect this aspect of the service.
How we inspected this service
This inspection was carried out on 4 September 2019; the inspection team consisted of a CQC Lead Inspector, GP Specialist Advisor, a member of the CQC medicines team and another CQC inspector. Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. During the inspection we spoke to the Registered Manager, a member of the management and the Chief Medical Officer who was also a clinician working for the service.
To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we 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.