Newtown Clinic

Updated 15 October 2018

Newtown Clinic is part of Solent Medical Services Limited, which is an NHS-staff owned company. The service aims to provide accessible community-based care for NHS patients for dermatology and ophthalmology. The service also provides community well-being nursing services which do not fall under the scope of regulated activity and which we did not inspect. Those referred to Newtown Clinic for dermatology and ophthalmology services receive comprehensive assessments and discussions regarding appropriate treatment. Minor procedures are performed onsite if appropriate, otherwise patients are referred onto secondary care providers which are provided by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.

Newtown Clinic is located at 24-26 Lyon Street, Southampton, Hampshire, SO14 0LX.

The service also has two satellite sites based at:

Woolston Lodge Surgery, 66a Portsmouth Road, Woolston, Southampton, SO19 9AL, and Burgess Road Surgery, 357a Burgess Road, Southampton, SO16 3BD. Neither of the sites were in use by the service on the day of inspection so we did not visit them.

The core opening hours for dermatology and ophthalmology services are Monday to Friday 8am-5pm.

The staff team at the service consists of dermatology and ophthalmology consultants, GPs with special interests in dermatology and ophthalmology, optometrists, nurses and healthcare assistants. The clinical team are supported by an administrative team and there is a comprehensive management structure led by the Head of Services, who reports to Solent Medical Services Limited’s Board of Directors.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Newtown Clinic on 23 August 2018. Our inspection team was led by a CQC Lead inspector. The inspection team included a GP Specialist Advisor.

Prior to the inspection, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service, such as any notifications received, and the information provided from the pre-inspection information request.

During our visit:

• We spoke with the Registered Manager, a member of the Board of Directors, the Head of Services, the Operations Manager, clinicians and a number of administrative staff.
• We looked at equipment and rooms used for providing dermatology and ophthalmology services.
• We reviewed records and documents.

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 15 October 2018

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 23 August 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Newtown Clinic offers services in dermatology, ophthalmology and community well-being nursing care to patients living in Southampton and Hampshire. Patients are referred to the service either by their registered GP or by secondary care units based at the Royal South Hampshire hospital. The service only sees adults over the age of 18 years. Patients attending the ophthalmology service may attend for the purpose of reviewing and treating cataracts or glaucoma, while those attending the dermatology service may attend for the purpose of treatment for mild to moderate skin complaints or the removal of lesions.

The service is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 for all of the services it provides. On this inspection, we inspected the dermatology and ophthalmology services provided. Newtown Clinic is registered with CQC to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

At the time of our inspection a registered manager was 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.

This is the first inspection by CQC of the Newtown Clinic, although services provided by the provider, Solent Medical Services Ltd have been inspected by CQC previously. The full comprehensive reports for the previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Solent Medical Services Ltd on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

We received 31 completed CQC comment cards from patients. Feedback was very positive about the service delivered at Newtown Clinic. We also spoke with patients on the day.

Our key findings were:

• Patients were positive about the service they received at Newtown Clinic.
• Clinicians regularly assessed clients according to appropriate guidance and standards.
• The provider was aware of, and complied with, the requirements of the Duty of Candour.
• Risks to patients were well-managed. For example, there were systems in place to reduce the risk and spread of infection.
• Information about how to complain was available and easy to understand.
• There were effective systems in place to check all equipment had been serviced regularly.
• Staff were up to date with current guidelines and were led by a proactive management team.
• The system for managing safety alerts was not consistently effective at the time of the inspection visit; this was addressed immediately following the visit.
• Risk assessments had been carried out and the provider had completed all actions that they were responsible for.
• There was a culture of openness and transparency throughout the service.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should:

• Continue to review how the service receives and actions safety alerts.
• Review policies to ensure they are reflective of the service’s systems and processes for example, frequency of infection prevention and control training of non-clinical staff.
• Review how the service obtain assurances that staff receive appropriate training relevant to their role, for example, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, safeguarding and fire safety training.