Blackberry Clinic - Fareham

Updated 29 September 2023

Blackberry Clinic – Fareham is located at:

Suites 1 and 2

Faretec

Carnec Court

Cams Hall Estate

Fareham

PO16 8UY

The clinic is managed and overseen by the provider Blackberry Clinic Limited which has 19 other clinics located across England which are registered separately with CQC. The service website can be accessed via the following link – www.blackberryclinic.co.uk.

The staff team at Blackberry Clinic – Fareham consists of a centre manager, a musculoskeletal doctor, 4 GPs, 3 health advisors and a physiotherapist. Patients have the choice of seeing a male or female member of staff when booking an appointment with a GP or health advisor. The team is supported by an area manager who is responsible for several clinics over a geographical location. The staff team is further supported by the following national roles; operations manager, quality and compliance manager, quality and compliance officer, training manager, recruitment manager, operations director and a clinical director.

The provider offers specialised treatment for musculoskeletal conditions including back pain, sports injuries and chronic pain conditions. The service is registered to treat adults and children however, most patients treated were adults. The provider also offers services including pain management, physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, podiatry, chiropody, private GP appointments, ear wax removal and health assessments.

Appointments can be booked over the phone, online, on the website or face to face by visiting the clinic. The service is open between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday and is closed at weekends. Patients who need to contact the clinic outside of the core business hours are given out of hours contact details.

How we inspected this service

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service and requested evidence which we reviewed prior to the inspection visit. During the onsite visit, we spoke to staff in a range of roles and reviewed information and documents which were not able to be sent and needed to be inspected on site. These included samples of staff recruitment files, medical records, reviewing clinical spaces and checking emergency medicines and equipment.

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 29 September 2023

This service is rated as Good overall.

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 Blackberry Clinic – Fareham on 23 August 2023. The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2021. We carried out this first rated inspection as part of our regulatory functions. The inspection was undertaken to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

This service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (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 services, and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Blackberry Clinic – Fareham is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
• Diagnostic and screening procedures.

Therefore, we only inspected the health screening service, private GP and treatment of musculoskeletal, sports injury and ear wax removal.

Blackberry Clinic – Fareham is an independent service provider which provides treatments for acute and chronic pain, health screening, health assessment services and a range of specialist diagnostic services and treatments which includes x-rays, joint injections and physiotherapy. The service specialises in the treatment of muscle, bone and joint problems including back pain, repetitive strain and sports injuries, private GP appointments and ear wax removal.

The centre manager 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:

• There were systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety.
• The provider operated clear and effective systems to safeguard patients.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence-based guidance.
• Regular audits were completed to ensure and monitor quality and effectiveness of care and treatments.
• Information about services and how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• The provider was aware of and complied with the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
• The provider had facilities that were appropriate for the treatments offered and the provider was well equipped to meet patient’s needs.
• The provider had a range of policies and procedures in place to govern activity; staff were able to access these policies.
• Feedback was proactively sought from staff and patients and actions were taken to address any concerns raised.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Implement and embed the new process to request and maintain evidence of staff vaccinations.
• Improve the efficiency of the system and process to monitor emergency equipment.
• Take action to update the complaints policy and procedure to include reference to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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