Kings Medical Centre

Updated 9 June 2022

Novus Health Limited is an independent healthcare provider which delivers care to NHS patients. The headquarters are located at The Normanton Hub, Millenium Court, 60 Queen Street, Normanton, West Yorkshire, WF2 6BU. The registered operating address for the service is Kings Medical Centre, King Edward Street, Normanton, Wakefield WF6 2QZ.

The provider delivers several specialist services which include:

• Carpal tunnel treatment and surgery service – the service is focused on supporting patients to maintain a non-surgical pathway of care whenever possible.
• Community dermatology service.
• Direct access adult hearing loss service – the only part of this service that is in the scope of CQC registration is a wax management service being piloted which relates to the treatment of adult hearing loss.
• Community physiotherapy service – this service falls outside the scope of CQC regulation.

Services are provided under ‘Any Qualified Provider’ contracts (AQP) (this is a type of NHS contract, which allows non-NHS as well as NHS organisations to provide NHS services). The main commissioner of services is NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group, although the carpal tunnel service, dermatology service, and adult hearing loss service is available to patients residing with the area covered by NHS Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group.

The service operates from locations across West Yorkshire, some of these are the provider’s own locations and some are delivered in hosted GP practices:

• Kings Medical Centre, King Edward Street, Normanton, Wakefield, WF6 2QZ - Community Dermatology Service. This service is hosted by King’s Medical Practice.
• Sandal Castle Medical Centre, Asdale Road, Wakefield, WF2 7JE - Carpal Tunnel Treatment and Surgery Service, Community Dermatology Service. This service is hosted by Trinity Medical Centre.
• The Normanton Hub, Millenium Court, 60 Queen Street, Normanton, West Yorkshire, WF2 6BU - carpal tunnel treatment and surgery service, community dermatology service, direct access adult hearing loss service (including the pilot wax management service). This service is delivered in a location operated by Novus Health Limited.
• College Lane Surgery, Barnsley Road, Ackworth, Pontefract, WF7 7HZ - carpal tunnel treatment and surgery service, community dermatology service. This service is hosted by College Lane Surgery.
• Middlestown Medical Centre, 129 New Road, Wakefield, WF4 4PA - community dermatology service. This service is hosted by Middlestown Medical Centre.
• The Wakefield Hub, 8-10 Providence Street, Wakefield, WF1 3BG - community dermatology service. This service is delivered in a location operated by Novus Health Limited.
• Unit 4, Benton Office Park, Bennett Avenue, Horbury, Wakefield, WF4 5RA – clinical call centre. This service is delivered in a location operated by Novus Health Limited.

Appointments are booked via NHS referrals from patients registered in their resident NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups. Patients can opt to attend a location of their choice, depending upon which days services are delivered from each of the sites.

The days and hours of operation are flexible and driven by patient demand and clinical capacity. The service can be contacted Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm.

The service is delivered by a range of clinicians including consultant surgeons, GPs with special interests, nurses and clinical support staff. They are supported by a management, call handling, and administration team. The service utilises a mix of employed staff and sessional staff.

Novus Health Limited is registered with the Care Quality Commission to deliver the following regulated activities:

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

Updated 9 June 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. The service had been previously inspected in February 2014 but did not receive a rating at that time.

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 Kings Medical Centre as part of our inspection programme.

The provider delivers several specialist services which include:

• Carpal Tunnel Treatment and Surgery Service
• Community Dermatology Service
• Direct Access Adult Hearing Loss Service
• Community Physiotherapy Service

The 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 service, and these are set out in Schedule 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We were only able to evaluate the services which come into the scope of regulatory requirements with the CQC and therefore only inspected services in relation to carpal tunnel treatment and surgery, the community dermatology Service, and some elements of the adult hearing loss service which included an in-house wax management service which was being piloted. Services we did not inspect included audiology, such as the fitting of hearing aids and devices, and physiotherapy services as these fell outside the scope of CQC registration.

How we inspected this service

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, considering the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

During our inspection we:

• Looked at the systems in place relating to safety and governance of the service.

• Viewed key policies and procedures.

• Reviewed patient records.

• Interviewed the provider both by telephone and face to face.

• Spoke with staff and received written submissions from them.

• Spoke with patients who used the service.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we asked the following questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive?
• Is it well-led?

These questions formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• There were systems in place to review and investigate events and incidents when things went wrong or did not meet the required standards. Lessons learned were shared and the provider identified themes and took action to improve quality and safety.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. Treatment was delivered in a timely manner.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The service had adjusted how it delivered care and treatment to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients were able to access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The way the service was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care. There were effective performance management and governance processes in place, and we saw that action had been taken to improve performance and tackle areas which had not met service internal standards when these were identified.
• Patient satisfaction with services provided was high.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Maintain records to demonstrate that staff are vaccinated in line with Public Health England guidance.
• Fully re-establish appraisal processes across all staff groups.
• Develop a standard two-cycle approach to clinical and non-clinical audit activity.

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