Archived: Dr Kelly & Associates - London Wall

Updated 4 November 2020

Dr Kelly & Associates – London Wall became part of Doctorcall Ltd (the provider) in July 2017, upon the retirement of the previous registered provider. It has operated from premises at 65 London Wall, London, EC2M 5TU since 1989. The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the regulated activities: Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. It provides healthcare to adults over 18 years of age. Services are offered to individual patients who pay for their healthcare, but most of the service (approximately 80%) is provided under corporate healthcare and employment arrangements or medical insurance. There is a focus on providing screening services and treatment for acute

issues, rather than long-term conditions such as diabetes.

The provider offers consultations, travel vaccinations, sexual health services and health screening services. There are arrangements in place for patients to be referred by the provider to other services for diagnostic imaging and specialist care. The provider also operates from another location in London and one in Manchester. It offers a 24-hour doctor private consultation service to patients.

The premises at London Wall are leased. The provider’s offices and four consultation rooms are on the third floor, accessible by lifts. There are good transports links nearby. The clinic is open from Monday to Friday with consultations normally available between 8.00 am and 6.00 pm. Consultations are 15 minutes long and are usually by appointment, although walk-in patients can often be accommodated.

The clinic currently operates with two doctors, one female and one male, who work three and five days a week respectively. The doctors have the appropriate General Medical Council registration. The doctors are supported by an administrative team of three staff, a practice manager, and two

administrators who have combined roles as a receptionist and a secretary.

Updated 4 November 2020

This service is rated as Good overall.

The service was previously inspected in May 2019 and was rated Good overall. They were rated as Good in Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led. However, it was rated as Requires Improvement in Safe.

The key question reviewed in this inspection Is now rated as follows:

Are services Safe? – Good

We carried out this announced focused inspection on 14 October 2020 to follow up on breaches we had identified at the last inspection. We had asked the provider to make improvements regarding:

• The provider could not confirm that staff who carried out chaperone duties had enhanced DBS checks completed.
• Full recruitment information was not available to demonstrate that safe recruitment practices had been carried out.
• Prescriptions for controlled drugs were not securely monitored.

We checked these areas as part of this focused inspection and found they had been resolved.

We found that:

• The provider had reviewed their procedure to ensure that all staff who have patient facing roles, which includes chaperones, were now required to have an Enhanced DBS check.
• We saw evidence to confirm all the appropriate recruitment information for all their current staff was now kept on site
• The practice manager drafted a new policy and set up a log for monitoring the use of controlled drugs prescriptions

There were a number of other issues from the previous report that we had said the provider should address. These were:

• Review the service quality improvement programme with a view to establishing an effective clinical audit process to review and improve patient outcomes.
• Review the process for recording and maintaining information related to Disclosure and Barring (DBS) checks carried out to confirm that appropriate DBS checks have been completed.
• Consider reviewing the performance of clinical staff to include a review of consultations, prescribing and referral decisions.

The provider reported that these had been addressed and provided evidence to support this. However, in the absence of an on-site inspection CQC were unable to review all actions. These matters do not affect the rating.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care