Archived: Kings Private Clinic

Updated 24 October 2019

Kings Private Clinic is one of four locations owned by the same provider. This clinic is located in the basement of the offices at 100 Borough High Street. It is close to London Bridge rail and tube station, Borough tube station and local bus stops. Parking in the local area is limited and the clinic does not have step free access. The clinic consists of one consulting room. The clinic provides slimming advice and prescribes medicines to support weight reduction. It is a private service for adults between the ages of 18 and 65 years. It is open for walk ins on Tuesdays, and Saturday mornings.

The clinic is usually staffed by a receptionist and a doctor. If for any reason, a shift is not filled by the doctor or receptionist, staff from other locations can usually provide cover. In addition, staff work closely with colleagues based at the other clinic locations. On the day of inspection, we also spoke to the Business Manager and the Head of Operations. There is no registered manager in post and we have been assured that the relevant documentation will be submitted imminently. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Regulations about how the clinic is run.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by, or under the supervision of, a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines for the purposes of weight reduction.

How we inspected this service

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information about the service, including the previous inspection report and information given to us by the provider. We also spoke to the staff and people using the service and reviewed a range of documents.

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 24 October 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection: August 2018 – not rated)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Kings Private Clinic as part of our inspection programme to rate the service.

Kings Private Clinic provides weight loss services, including prescribing medicines and dietary advice to support weight reduction. There was no registered manager at the time of our inspection. This was because the provider moved from the previous location at short notice and hadn’t submitted the correct registration documentation. As a result, the registered manager (who was still present and working for the provider) was automatically deregistered by CQC. Due to this, the provider was in breach of their registration condition. At the time of this inspection, the provider had submitted the correct application for the new location and this was awaiting approval. However, the provider was yet to submit the relevant forms for a new registered manager at the current location. We have been assured that the relevant application will be submitted imminently.

A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run.

Unfortunately, the service had not received any comment cards by the time of the inspection. However, we did manage to speak with four people using the service on the day of inspection. They were all happy with the service being provided. People using the service told us that they felt listened to and did not feel judged.

Our key findings were:

• People using this clinic were very happy with the service being provided.
• There was no registered manager in post at the time of this inspection.
• The provider was in breach of their location condition at the time of this inspection.
• The provider had moved to a new premises which meant that the doctor and the receptionist were based in the same consultation room.
• The clinic had systems to manage people that did not fit the criteria for weight loss treatment.
• The clinic was not signed up to the national central alerting system which sends out medical alerts.

The areas where the provider must make improvements are:

• 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:

• Only supply unlicensed medicines against valid special clinical needs of an individual patient where there is no suitable licensed medicine available.
• The provider should continually review the issues around privacy and the facilities available.The provider should consider the arrangements for interpretation services.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care