@MK18 Private Medical Practice

We carried out an announced focused inspection at @MK18 Private Medical Practice, a private GP service located in Buckinghamshire on 11 March 2020.

At our previous inspection in July 2019, the service was rated good overall, however we identified concerns relating to an aspect of governance within the management of services. We therefore rated the well-led key question as Requires Improvement and we issued a requirement notice in relation to the governance arrangements, specifically the arrangements to verify patient identify.

The July 2019 inspection was part of the independent health care inspection programme to award a rating and check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The inspection report for the previous inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all services’ link for @MK18 Private Medical Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk

At this inspection, on 11 March 2020, we found the service had addressed the issue identified at the last inspection. This led to the service being rated as Good for the provision of well-led services whilst the overall rating of Good remains.

At this inspection we found:

• Following the July 2019 inspection, we saw the provider had amended the operating model and added an additional verification check when completing patient identity checks. On accessing the service patient identity was verified as patients were now required to provide photo identity such as driving licence or passport alongside proof of address. This amendment aligned to the revised governance policies within the service.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care

This service is rated as Good overall.

This was the first Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of this service.

The key questions are rated as:

• Are services safe? – Good
• 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 of @MK18 Private Medical Practice in Buckinghamshire on 9 July 2019.

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.

@MK18 Private Medical Practice 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 the 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. Some of the services available, for example, non-surgical cosmetic interventions, cryolipolysis (fat freezing) and cosmetic dermatology services, are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services and only inspected the GP service including the GP led minor surgery service as part of this inspection.

The Director was also the Founder of the service, one of the GPs and the registered manager. 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection, we received 14 completed comment cards which were all positive about the standard of care they received.

The service was described as welcoming, first-rate and professional, whilst staff were described as attentive, supportive and caring. Several comments highlighted how compassionate the GP was.

Our key findings were:

• The service had clear systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse. Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses.

• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The way in which care was delivered was reviewed to ensure it was delivered according to best practice guidance and staff were well supported to update their knowledge through training.

• Patients were provided with information about their health and with advice and guidance to support them to live healthier lives.

• Feedback from patients was consistently positive, feedback highlighted a strong person-centred culture.

• Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. They were delivered in a flexible way that ensured choice and continuity of care.

• There was an overarching provider vision and strategy with evidence of good local leadership within the service.

• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems to support good governance and management. However, the governance arrangements and supporting processes to verify patient identity required improvement.

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

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care. (Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report).

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

​Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care