Clinica London Limited

Updated 17 November 2022

Clinica London Limited is an independent ophthalmology and dermatology service based on Harley Street in central London. The service is housed in a shared building and occupies rooms on the first and second floors.

Services are provided by a lead consultant and a number of consultant dermatologists, ophthalmologists, orthoptists and nurses. The consultants carry out one session a week at the service. All are employed substantively within the NHS and work at the service under their practicing privileges. The service treats both adults and children.

The service is open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 7pm and Saturdays 10am to 4pm by request.

The provider is registered with the CQC to provide the following registered activities: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Surgical Procedures and Diagnostic and Screening Procedures.

How we inspected this service

In preparation for this inspection we asked the provider to supply us with information, reviewed information we hold about the service on our systems and asked for feedback from people who use 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 17 November 2022

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall. (Previous inspection May 2013 under a previous inspection methodology. Found to be compliant.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Clinica London as part of our inspection programme.

Clinica London is an independent healthcare service specialising in pediatric and adult ophthalmology and dermatology services.

Our key findings were:

• The service was providing generally safe care. However, we found concerns around some safety processes, specifically risk assessment and management, emergency medicines and equipment and the safe prescribing of medicines.
• The service was providing effective care. The effectiveness and appropriateness of the care provided was reviewed. There was limited evidence of quality improvement activity.
• The service was providing caring services.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• 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 generally well-led. Leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care. However, we found some systems and processes, specifically around safety management, were not consistently applied and managed.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

(Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review quality improvement activity, including clinical and medicines audits to ensure it is carried out regularly and consistently.
• Review prescribing protocols to ensure a consistent approach which aligns with national guidelines.
• Consider measures for continuous improvement and innovation.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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