Panakeia (UK) Ltd

Updated 5 January 2023

Panakeia UK Ltd is located at 35b Bushmead Avenue, Bedford, MK40 3QH. The telephone number is 01234 910707. The website addresses is www.panakeia-uk.com.

Panakeia (UK) Ltd is a private clinic providing travel health advice and travel immunisation, immunisation against chicken pox (for children), shingles, Meningitis B, influenza and minor surgery (skin lesions).

The two partners, a GP (male) and a pharmacist (female) delivered the service. The partners had locum arrangements with a plastic surgeon and a consultant plastic surgeon. No other staff are employed by the service.

The service is open 7 days a week. Appointments are available between 9am and 7pm Monday to Friday and between 9am and 3pm Saturday and Sunday. Appointments are also available outside of these hours on request.

How we inspected this service

Before inspecting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service and we reviewed the information we asked the provider to send us.

During our inspection we:

• Spoke with the doctor and the service manager.
• Reviewed how care or treatment were being delivered including the associated record.
• Reviewed two Care Quality Commission (CQC) comment cards where service users shared their views and experiences of the service.
• Reviewed a range of policies, procedures and management information held by the 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 5 January 2023

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 19/06/2018 – we found the service to be compliant in accordance with the relevant regulations across the five key questions).

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 Panakeia (UK) Ltd on 15 December 2022 as part of our inspection programme.

The comprehensive report on the June 2018 inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Panakeia (UK) Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Panakeia (UK) Ltd is a private clinic providing travel health advice and travel immunisation, immunisation against chicken pox (for children), shingles, Meningitis B, influenza and minor surgery (skin lesions).

Panakeia (UK) Ltd 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.

Panakeia (UK) Ltd is registered with the CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• diagnostic and screening procedures
• surgical procedures
• treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The provider has a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the 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.

Our key findings were:

• The service had clear systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse.
• There were systems in place for the management of significant events and incidents. Risks to service users were assessed and managed.
• The service had reliable systems for appropriate and safe handling of medicines.
• The service had systems to keep clinicians up to date with current evidence based practice.
• Clinicians were actively involved in quality improvement activity.
• The service obtained consent to care and treatment in line with legislation and guidance.
• Clinicians helped service users to be involved in decisions about care and treatment.
• The service took complaints and feedback seriously and responded to them appropriately to improve the quality of care.
• The service had a culture of high-quality sustainable care.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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