Wellman Clinic

Updated 24 January 2023

The Wellman Medical Centre LLP provides private medical services from Wellman Clinic, located at 32 Weymouth Street, London, W1G 7BU. Services are predominantly aimed at men’s health and wellbeing; including health screening for cancer and mental health conditions, hormone replacement therapy and the treatment of sexual health conditions. The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures, Treatment of disease disorder and injury and Surgical procedures.

The service is in a converted residential property with stepped access to a ground floor reception and waiting area, two ground floor consultation and treatment rooms, storage areas and staff kitchen. A side entrance allows for step free access; however, the premises and facilities have not been adapted for those with limited mobility or wheelchair users. Stairs access the first-floor consultation room and administrative office.

Services are available to any fee-paying patient on a pay per use basis. Services are available by appointment only between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday.

The service is led by the medical director who is also one of three doctors in the clinical team. The clinical team also includes a healthcare assistant. The clinical team is supported by a practice manager and a private personal assistant. Those staff who are required to register with a professional body were registered with a licence to practice. The service has a registered manager, the medical director, who is registered with the Care Quality Commission (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.

How we inspected this 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 24 January 2023

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection May 2018 - unrated)

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 The Wellman Clinic as part of our inspection programme.

At the previous inspection in May 2018 the location was unrated, which was in line with our inspection methodology at that time. At that inspection we found the provider was delivering effective, caring, responsive care and was well-led. However we also found safety concerns, specifically around emergency equipment, medicines management, management of safety alerts and infection prevention and control. At this inspection in November 2022 we found these concerns had been resolved. However we have told the provider they should make improvements around prescribing and quality improvement.

Wellman Clinic is an independent medical service which specialises in men’s health and wellbeing; including health screening for cancer and mental health conditions, hormone replacement therapy and the treatment of sexual health conditions.

At this inspection we found:

• The service was providing safe care and there were measure in place to manage risks. However we found the provider was not carrying our prescribing audits.
• The service was providing effective care. The effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided was reviewed. There was some evidence of quality improvement activity, however we have told the provider they should make some improvements to these processes.
• The service was providing caring services. Staff treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. Feedback from people who used the service was positive.
• The service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations. People were supported to access the service when they wanted to. There were systems and processes in place to manage feedback.
• The service was providing well-led care. Leaders have the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care. They demonstrated a vision to deliver high quality care and promote good outcomes for patients.

Whilst we did not find any breaches of the regulations, the areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Carry out regular prescribing audits to ensure prescribing is in line with best practice guidelines for safe prescribing.
• Devise a programme of systematic and coordinated quality improvement activity.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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