Vaccination UK Limited

Updated 28 September 2022

Vaccination UK Limited was established in the UK in 2007 and provides travel clinic services from their head office located at 5 Portmill Lane, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1DJ. The telephone number is 01462 459595. The website addresses are www.travelvaccination.co.uk and www.schoolvaccination.uk.

The travel clinic offers the following services:

• travel vaccinations
• immunisations, including childhood vaccinations in schools and flu jabs in various workplaces
• private medical consultations
• medical screening examinations and assessments
• Practice nurse duties including ear syringing, blood taking (venepuncture) and cervical screening, sexual health and covid-19 screening for asymptomatic patients.

The provider also operates three other clinics. These are located at:

• Axis BMC Travel Clinic, Evegate Business Park, Station Road, Smeeth, Ashford, Kent TN25 6SX

• Winchester Travel Clinic, 1 Stockbridge Road, Hampshire, SO22 6RN

• Southampton Travel Clinic, 79 Bedford Place. Southampton. SO15 2DF.

Appointments with a travel nurse are available between:

• 2pm and 6pm on Mondays

• 8.15am and 2pm on Tuesdays

• 9am and 1pm on Wednesdays

• 10am and 7pm on Thursdays

• 9am and 1pm on Fridays.

Appointments with a nurse are also available between 11am and 2pm on one Saturday each month.

Appointments with a doctor are available between:

• 1pm and 3pm on three Wednesdays a month

• 9am and 11am on one Saturday a month.

Vaccination UK Limited has been commissioned to provide the NHS school aged vaccination programme in Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and 10 London Boroughs (seven in North East London, two in North Central London and one in the City of London). The service provides BCG clinics in East London (BCG is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis) and has also been sub-contracted by Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust to deliver the flu vaccination programme in all schools across Hertfordshire.

From September 2021, Vaccination UK Limited has been working with Hertfordshire NHS Community Trust to deliver the school aged influenza programme across Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and East of England.

Updated 28 September 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 19 May 2021 – Good)

The key question is rated as:

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Vaccination UK Limited on 9 March 2018. We found that this service was not providing safe and well-led care in accordance with regulations. Requirement notices were served in relation to breaches identified under Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 Good governance and Regulation 18 Staffing. We carried out an announced focused inspection on 20 November 2018 to follow up on the areas identified in the previous requirement notices and found they had been resolved.

As part of our inspection programme, we carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Vaccination UK Limited on 9 October 2019. We found that this service was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulation. A requirement notice was served in relation to breaches identified under Regulation 17 Good governance. We told the provider they must establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

We carried out an announced focused desk based review of Vaccination UK Limited on 19 May 2021 to follow up on breaches of regulation. We found that this service was not providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulation. A requirement notice was served in relation to breaches identified under Regulation 17 Good governance. We told the provider they must establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The comprehensive report on the March 2018 inspection, the focused report on the November 2018 inspection, the comprehensive report on the October 2019 inspection and the focused report on the May 2021 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Vaccination UK Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

This inspection was announced focused desk based review of Vaccination UK Limited on 22 August 2022 to follow up on breaches of regulation.

Vaccination UK Limited is a private clinic providing travel health advice, travel and non-travel vaccines, and medicines for travel, such as anti-malarial medicines, to both children and adults. The clinic also offers blood tests to check a person’s immunity to illnesses associated with travel. In addition, the clinic holds a licence to administer yellow fever vaccines.

Vaccination UK Limited is also commissioned to the NHS in the provision of child immunisation services.

This location is registered with Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 travel health.

The clinic is registered with the CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• diagnostic and screening procedures
• treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The provider has a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC 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.

Our key findings were:

• There was a clear leadership structure and the service had policies and procedures to govern activity.
• Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of services. They understood the challenges, had identified areas which required strengthening and were addressing them.
• Governance arrangements had been improved and governance structures, systems and processes were effective in enabling the provider to identify, assess and mitigate risks to clients, staff and others.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services