Updated 19 December 2022
Ent4kids is a private medical service provided by ENT4KIDS Limited (the provider). It operates from rented premises at 61 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8AH. The provider is registered by the CQC to deliver the regulated activities Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
The service offers private specialist Ear, Nose and Throat consultations and healthcare, mostly to children. This includes diagnostic services such as microscopy, endoscopy and audiology; and treatment including prescribing and dispensing topical medication, cleaning of ears, treatment of infections, cautery of noses, removal of foreign bodies and tongue tie division. The service operates between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Mondays to Fridays, although some appointments may be available outside those normal hours.
Minor healthcare procedures are carried out at the location. However, the doctors working in the service have practicing privileges to take patients to two private London hospitals to undergo surgery or for admission.
The clinical team consists of the registered manager and three other doctors, all of whom are registered by the General Medical Council and on the GMC’s specialist Otolaryngology register. Otolaryngology is a medical specialty which is focused on the ears, nose, and throat. The service employs a registered children’s nurse and the clinic manager is an audiologist, registered by the Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists. The provider has a company secretary and there are two administrative staff, one of whom works remotely.
Details of the service can be found on its website:
www.ent4kids.co.uk
How we inspected this service
Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. We also reviewed information held by the CQC on our internal systems. We carried out a site visit and spoke with the provider and staff.
We reviewed the provider’s governance policies and looked at eight sets of healthcare records of patients using the service.
Due to the current COVID pandemic we were unable to obtain feedback from patients using our normal process of asking the provider to place comment cards at the service location. No patients had appointments booked on the day of our inspection visit. However, we reviewed the feedback submitted by service users on a verified review website, regarding their experience of the service. We also received direct feedback via the CQC website from four service users.
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.