Archived: Sydenham House

Updated 22 June 2022

This location was visited as part of the inspection of locations registered to Stellar Healthcare Limited. Sydenham House registered as a location with the Stellar Healthcare in January 2021 primarily to support local COVID-19 pandemic primary care activities. After the height of the pandemic the location continued to be used to provide a range of NHS funded services.

Stellar Healthcare is a limited company with Community interest Company (CiC) articles made up of 21 member practices in Epping Forest and Harlow.

Services provided on behalf of the NHS at this location include, ophthalmology, orthopaedic, rheumatology and musculoskeletal (MSK) interface services. It provides NHS services only.

Stellar Healthcare operates from the headquarters at: Building One, Spencer Close, St Margaret’s Hospital, The Plain, Epping, Essex, CM16 6TN. This location was also visited.

The service is led by a chief operating officer and board of directors who coordinate a team of up to 50 administrative and clinical staff. Clinical staff include GP’s and GP’s with specialist interest (GPwSI), clinical pharmacists, practice nurses, emergency and extended care practitioners and health care assistants.

The service operates from

• 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday
• 8.30pm to 9.30pm Thursdays
• 8am to 8pm on Saturdays

The website is www.stellarhealthcare.net

Updated 22 June 2022

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Sydenham House as part of our inspection programme.

Stellar Healthcare provides regulated activities at seven sites throughout Essex. We did not visit any other of these sites as part of this inspection. This was the first inspection undertaken at this service

The chief operating officer 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.

Our key findings were:

• Procedures to make safe recruitment decisions required strengthening.
• Not all staff had received appropriate levels of safeguard training.
• The service was not equipped to deal with medical emergencies.
• The service did not always undertake risk assessments in relation to safety issues.
• Not all staff knew how to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.
• There was limited evidence that the service assured the competence of staff employed in additional roles.
• There were inconsistencies in the approach to ensure consent to care and treatment had been considered.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• The service was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
• Patients had been offered flexibility, choice and continuity of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The service organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.
• There were gaps in processes to manage risk, issues and performance.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Strengthen systems and processes in place to ensure recruitment checks are carried out in accordance with regulations.
• Ensure there is an effective system in place for the provision and monitoring of emergency medicines and equipment, in the event of a medical emergency.
• Strengthen the system in place to monitor staff training appropriate to their role, including safeguarding.
• Review systems in place to identify and record identified risks, including risk assessment.
• Formalise the process of assessing parental authority as part of the consent process.
• Establish a programme of medicines audits to ensure staff are practicing in line with current guidance.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care