Hexpress Health Support Office

Updated 19 January 2023

Hexpress Health Support Office provides an online prescribing service to patients aged 18 years and over. Patients wishing to use the service access it via one of their websites, where patients fill out their online forms. The questions they are asked will be dependent on the prescription they request or the condition they are seeking treatment for.

They are then required to provide information to verify their identity and complete an online questionnaire relating to their medical history. The information supplied by the patient is then reviewed by one of Hexpress’ clinicians and where appropriate, a prescription is issued, and the medicine is dispensed to the patient by Hexpress’ own pharmacy, where it is delivered by secure post or if requested sent to a pharmacy nominated by the patient.

How we inspected this service

Before the inspection we gathered and reviewed information from the provider. During this inspection we spoke to the Registered Manager and members of the management and administration team and clinical team.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we 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 19 January 2023

Letter from the Chief Inspector of General Practice

We rated this service as Requires improvement overall. (Previous inspection May 2019 – Good)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Inadequate

Are services effective? – Requires improvement

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Hexpress Health Support Office on 17 May 2022. This was in response to concerns we had received relating to the safety of medicines.

Hexpress Health Support Office (Hexpress) provides an online prescribing service to patients aged 18 years and over. Patients wishing to use the service access it via one of their websites or they can call the service if they are unable to access online services .

At this inspection we found:

• The service prescribed medicines that required monitoring without sufficient reassurances that it was safe for the patient to access or continue with that medicine.
• Safe prescribing policies were not always followed.
• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. However, these audits were not always effective.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients could access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.

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
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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