Medic Plus Clinic

Updated 19 October 2018

Medic Plus Clinic is an independent medical practice located at 5 Castle Hill Parade, The Avenue, West Ealing, London W13 8JP. The practice offers GP consultations, health screening, and travel health to adults and children.

The practice team includes a pharmacist (full-time); GP (part-time); nurse (part-time); phlebotomist (part-time); and receptionist (full-time). The practice is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5.30pm, and Saturday from 9.30am to 12.30pm. This service is not required to offer an out-of-hours service. Patients who need medical assistance out of opening hours are directed to alternative services. This is detailed in patient literature and on the practice’s telephone answering service.

Medic Plus Clinic is registered to provide the regulated activities of: diagnostic and screening services and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection of Medic Plus Clinic on 4 September 2018. Our inspection team was led by CQC lead inspector and included a GP specialist advisor. Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service and asked the provider to send us information about the service, which we also reviewed. We did not receive any concerning information from patients or other stakeholders.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with staff who were present, including the pharmacist and receptionist. We also spoke with a GP and nurse over the phone.
• Observed how staff interacted with patients.
• Reviewed comment cards where patients shared their views and experiences of the service.
• Looked at information the service used to deliver care and treatment plans.
• Reviewed documents relating to the service.

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 19 October 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 4 September 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection 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 practice was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Medic Plus Clinic is an independent medical practice located in West Ealing, London. The practice offers GP services for adults and children.

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 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. Therefore, we were only able to inspect GP services as part of this inspection.

The founder of the service was also the pharmacist and 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. We received 31 completed comment cards which were all positive about the standard of care received. Patients commented that they were listened to and treated with dignity and respect. Staff were described as friendly, professional and caring. Patients said they felt safe and the environment was clean.

Our key findings were:

• Systems were in place to protect people from avoidable harm and abuse.
• When mistakes occurred, lessons were learned and action was taken to minimise the potential for reoccurrence. Staff understood their responsibilities to be open with patients.
• Clinical staff were aware of current evidence based guidance.
• Staff were qualified and had the skills, experience and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Patient feedback indicated that patients were happy with the service they received.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• There was clear leadership and staff felt supported.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Review the processes in place to check staff have received updated child protection training.
• Review systems in place to check that all electrical equipment is safe to use.
• Review the process for checking the identity of patients.
• Review the use of clinical audit to monitor clinical performance and drive improvement.