Archived: Blossoms Healthcare LLP - Birmingham

Updated 11 September 2019

Blossoms Healthcare LLP-Birmingham is based in central Birmingham and the service location was registered with CQC in August 2018. There are three other service locations in London which are Garlick Hill, Tooley Street and Canary Wharf. Blossoms Healthcare LLP-Birmingham is part of the corporate brand HCA Healthcare UK which provides the overarching governance framework and the senior management structure.

Blossoms Healthcare LLP-Birmingham is a private GP service providing GP consultations, health and wellbeing screening and occupational health. Psychology and physiotherapy services are provided remotely. Services are delivered at the Birmingham location or internal referrals are made to other service locations within HCA Healthcare UK. Patients are also referred to specialist consultants and facilities on a private basis. The service provides care and treatment to only adults aged 18 years and older.

At the time of the inspection the service had less than 100 patients registered. The staff team at Blossoms Healthcare LLP-Birmingham comprise of two GPs and one administrative staff. They are supported by the senior management and administrative team at HCA Healthcare UK.

The service is open Mondays to Fridays 8am to 5pm. When the service is closed patients access their usual GP or out of hours service provider. One of the senior doctors for HCA Primary care group is on call for any urgent test results to ensure these are reviewed and acted on promptly.

Before visiting, we reviewed information we gathered from the provider through the provider information return (PIR) and other information we hold about the service.

During the inspection, we received feedback from people who used the service who had completed CQC comment cards. We spoke with staff including clinical and non-clinical staff and the senior management team, we also reviewed documents and made observations.

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.

This inspection was undertaken on 10 July 2019 and was led by a CQC inspector with a GP specialist advisor and a second CQC inspector.

Updated 11 September 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

For this inspection 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? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Blossoms Healthcare LLP - Birmingham under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and to rate the service.

Blossoms Healthcare LLP - Birmingham is a private GP service, providing a broad range of health services including GP consultations, health and wellbeing screening and occupational health services. The building, management team, staffing and governance structure are shared with Roodlane Medical Limited – Cornwall Street which is also registered with CQC. We therefore inspected both services, producing separate reports, both of which reflect the shared services.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At Blossoms Healthcare LLP - Birmingham, services are also provided to patients under arrangements made by their employer or an insurance company with whom the service user holds a policy (other than a standard health insurance policy). These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, at Blossoms Healthcare LLP - Birmingham, we were only able to inspect the services which are not arranged for patients by their employers or an insurance company with whom the patient holds a policy (other than a standard health insurance policy).

The lead GP is the registered manager. 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.

We received 16 completed CQC comment cards from service users. All the comments were positive about the service and staff. There were no appointments booked on the day of the inspection and therefore we were unable to speak with any patients.

Our key findings were:

• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• The service took account of patient needs and preferences. Patients could access the service in a timely manner.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care, feedback we received from patients was positive.

• There were systems and processes in place to keep people safe such as safeguarding procedures, effective recruitment procedures and infection prevention and control but not all risks were fully considered or managed.
• There were systems in place to ensure good governance but some areas lacked effective oversight.

Although we found no breaches in regulations, the provider SHOULD;

• Review governance systems to ensure effective oversight. For example, risk management.

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