Sloane Medical Practice

Updated 25 October 2019

Sloane Medical Practice operates under the provider Sloane Medical Practice Limited which was formed in 2009 to deliver easily accessible clinical care to adults and children from a private GP. The Sloane Medical Practice Limited provider website is www.sloanemedicalpractice.com.

The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder or injury, and diagnostic and screening procedures.

The location site address that we visited as part of this inspection is Sloane Medical Practice, 82 Sloane Street, Kensington, London SW1X 9PA. The services' opening hours are 9am to 6pm Monday to Friday.

The staff team are two full time lead GPs who are the business partners (one male and one female), two further GPs (one female working part time and the other male working two sessions per week) and three reception and administration staff. The service treats between 200 and 500 patients per month.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information requested from the provider about the service they were providing. During the inspection we interviewed GPs including a partner GP, and non-clinical staff members. We analysed documentation, undertook observations and reviewed patients completed CQC comment cards.

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 25 October 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection August 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 Sloane Medical Practice. CQC inspected the service on 13 August 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding breaches of Regulation 12 HSCA (RA) Regulations 2014 Safe care and treatment. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found this had been resolved.

Sloane Medical Practice is an independent health service based in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea that provides patient consultations, treatment and referrals for adults and children. This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Some services provided at Sloane Medical Practice to patients under arrangements made by their employer, and a nutrition and dietary based slimming programme are exempt by law from CQC regulation and therefore did not fall into the scope of our inspection.

Dr Sabrina Pao is the registered manager and one of the two GP business partners. 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.

Feedback gathered from patients through CQC patient comment cards showed patients found the service accessible and were satisfied with their care and treated with dignity and respect.

Our key findings were :

• Patients were safeguarded from abuse and appropriate safety arrangements were in place. However, systems to ensure recording of safety alert follow up and verification of patient identity needed to be reviewed and improved.
• Systems were in place to protect people from avoidable harm.
• When mistakes occurred, lessons were learned, and action was taken to minimise the potential for reoccurrence. Staff understood their responsibilities under the duty of candour.
• The service had arrangements in place to respond to medical emergencies.
• The service implemented clinical governance systems and had put processes in place to ensure the quality of GPs and non-clinical service provision.
• Staff we interviewed were aware of current evidence-based guidance. Staff were qualified and had the skills and experience to deliver effective care and treatment.
• The service’s patient survey information and patient feedback we received indicated that patients were very satisfied with the service they received.
• Information about services and how to complain was available, lessons were learned, and improvements made in response to complaints and patient survey results.
• There was a clear leadership structure and staff felt supported by management and worked well together as a team.
• There was a clear vision to provide a personalised, high quality service.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review and improve systems to verify patient’s identity, including to assure that an adult accompanying a child had parental authority are effective and embedded.
• Review and improve the system of recording safety alert follow ups.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGPChief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care