Zafash 24 Hours Doctors

Updated 31 January 2023

Background to Zafash 24 Hours Doctors

Zafash 24 Hours Doctors is an independent GP service working with adults and children over the age of seven who require private consultations, physical examination and prescription of medication. The service primarily provides a mobile service to local hotels, but also offers a surgery and consultation space in the basement of Zafash Pharmacy at 231b Old Brompton Road, Earls Court, London.

The practice is part of Zafash Medical Services Ltd which also includes a pharmacy and online services. Zafash 24 Hours Doctors is registered separately with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The practice is open from 9am to 11pm daily. There is no out of hours service but patients can contact the provider’s mobile phone in an emergency.

The practice provides general medical care, treatment and advice to the local population. The practice will also see visitors to the United Kingdom who are resident in hotels as well as carrying out medical examinations for insurance companies.

During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the practice became a testing and vaccination centre and ceased to see patients for routine general practice work. The practice has recently re-commenced routine general practice consultations, and at the time of the inspection visit had seen one patient. The first since 2018.

The practice staff currently consists of practice manager (the CQC registered manager) and a part time doctor. We spoke with both during the inspection visit as well as reviewing documentation and any available clinical records.

At the inspection visit we were informed that many of the patient records were unobtainable due to the online records provider going out of business. The practice were in the process of trying to obtain these records. Older paper based records were available to view. The practice had reverted back to a paper based records system and all new consultations were being recorded in this way.

The provider is registered with the CQC to carry out the regulated activity of diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury.

Updated 31 January 2023

How we inspected this service

We carried out an announced inspection at Zafash 24 Hours Doctors on 26 October 2022. This was as part of our inspection programme; the service had previously been inspected but not rated.

This service 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 exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

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.

The key questions at this inspection were rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? - Unable to rate

Are services caring? - Unable to rate

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

Our key findings were:

• The service had good systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When they did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• There was a focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:

• Continue to develop clinical audits as more patients are seen.
• Look at ways to receive patient feedback in order to improve overall service and performance.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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