The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Harley Street Healthcare Clinic in Marylebone, London, Inadequate overall and Inadequate in relation to whether it is safe, effective and well-led following a recent inspection.
CQC carried out an unannounced focused inspection of the private general medical practice on 17 November, in response to concerns about the safety of the service. During this visit, inspectors identified a number of areas of concern and so returned to carry out a further unannounced comprehensive inspection on 26 November.
The rating for the service has now changed from Good overall to Inadequate and it has been placed in special measures. This means that it will be inspected again within six months to ensure that improvements have been made.
At that point, if insufficient improvements have been made and the rating of Inadequate remains overall, or Inadequate for any of the key questions relating to whether the service is safe, effective or well-led, CQC will use its legal powers to take action and begin the process of preventing the provider from operating the service. This could result in a cancellation of the provider’s registration or a variation in the terms of the registration.
During the inspection, CQC found:
- Recruitment checks were not carried out for all staff
- Not all staff had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles effectively and they did not always have the information they needed to provide patients with safe care and treatment
- Staff were not properly trained in relation to governance systems or safeguarding children
- Systems to manage infection prevention and control were ineffective
- Medicines were not managed properly
- There were no systems in place to follow up on patient referrals to other organisations
- Complaints and concerns were not managed appropriately, and the service did not always learn and make improvements when things went wrong
Vicki Wells, CQC’s Deputy Chief inspector for Primary Medical Services, said:
“During our inspection of Harley Street Healthcare Clinic we found that the service did not have effective systems or processes in place to ensure good governance and meet fundamental standards of care.
“We have told the provider that it must ensure that care and treatment is provided to patients in a safe way. It must also ensure that staff receive the appropriate support, training, and feedback to enable them to carry out their duties effectively.
“The provider has told us the actions that it is planning to take to make the required improvements. We will monitor the service closely and carry out a further inspection in due course.”
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on the CQC website here.
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Full reports for the trust will be published on CQC’s website here.