Blackberry Orthopaedic Clinic-Oxford

Updated 10 March 2023

Blackberry Orthopaedic Clinic – Oxford is located at 7600 The Quorum, Alec Issigonis Way, Oxford Business Park North, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX4 2JZ. The clinic is managed and overseen by the provider Blackberry Clinic Limited which also has 11 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 Orthopaedic Clinic – Oxford consists of a centre manager, 2 GPs, 2 health advisers and a physio. Patients have the choice of seeing a male or female member of staff when booking an appointment with a GP or health adviser. The team is supported by an area manager who spends limited time at the clinic as they support several locations. 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, the majority of patients treated were adults. mainly to adults over the age of 18. They also offer services including pain management, physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic, podiatry, chiropody, 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 inspection we spoke to staff in a range of roles and reviewed a variety of information and documents including samples of staff recruitment files and medical records.

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 10 March 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 Orthopaedic Clinic – Oxford as part of our inspection programme.

Blackberry Orthopaedic Clinic – Oxford is an independent service provider and provides treatments for acute and chronic pain, sports injuries, health screening and health assessment services and a range of specialist diagnostic services and treatments which includes x-rays, joint injections and physiotherapy. They also provide ear wax removal.

This service is registered with 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 Orthopaedic Clinic – Oxford is registered in respect of the provision of treatment of diseases, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures. Therefore, we only inspected the health screening service and treatment of musculoskeletal, sports injury and ear wax removal.

The area 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 was an effective system in place for reporting, recording and learning from significant events.
• There were systems to assess, monitor and manage risks to patient safety.
• The service operated clear and effective systems to safeguard patients.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge, 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.
• 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 their needs.
• The provider had a range of policies and procedures which were in place to govern activity; staff were able to access these policies.
• We saw there was clear leadership within the service and the team worked together in a cohesive, supportive and open manner.
• Feedback was proactively sought from staff and patients. Regular surveys were carried out and their findings were reported on. Actions were taken where required.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Implement an effectice process to ensure the secure storage of prescription stationary.
• Take action to ensure audits document learning points and demonstrate improvements.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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