The Basil Street Practice

Updated 27 December 2021

The Basil Street Practice was established in 1948 and has been located at the present address at 3 Basil Street, London, SW3 1AU since 1967. In 2018 The Basil Street Practice was acquired by HCA Healthcare UK and had a new registration with the CQC on 3 January 2019. The service provides private general practitioner services and is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of: Treatment of Disease, Disorder and Injury; and Diagnostic and Screening Procedures.

Within the service building there are two practitioners who offer the services of physiotherapy and psychology, not regulated by the CQC.

The service is open Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 18:00. Home visits to patients were available from all of the GPs for patients where necessary. When the service is closed there is a rota of Out of Hours doctors from The Basil Street Practice and two other local practices operating from 18:00 to 08:30 daily. The service currently has over 1000 patients registered and treats between 200-500 patients each month. The cost of care and treatment provided by the service is detailed for patients in advance.

The service employs four General Practitioners, a Practice Manager, three medical secretaries, and three receptionists.

How we inspected this service

• Prior to the inspection information was requested from the service and reviewed by the inspection team.

• A site visit was carried out, where we spoke with the Registered Manager, Practice Manager, Head of Operations, two GPs and two medical secretaries and reviewed patient consultation records and organisational documents including policies and procedures.

• Information was also submitted by the service following the inspection.

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 27 December 2021

This service is rated as Outstanding overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Basil Street Practice on 15 November 2021 as part of our independent health inspection programme. The Basil Street Practice provides an independent GP consulting service for private patients from consulting rooms at 3 Basil Street, London, SW3 1AU. The service is owned and run by HCA Healthcare UK. The HCA Healthcare UK private healthcare portfolio includes: The Harley Street Clinic, The Lister Hospital, London Bridge Hospital, The Portland Hospital, The Princess Grace Hospital, The Wellington Hospital, HCA Healthcare UK at University College London Hospital, and the Barnes Private Practice.

The service is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activities of diagnostic and screening procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. This was the first comprehensive inspection of the service following it’s new CQC registration of the service on 3 January 2019 as part of HCA Healthcare UK.

The Chief Executive Officer of The Lister Hospital, Suzy Canham, is the Registered Manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission 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.

We reviewed the feedback the service had received from 46 patients. All feedback was very positive about the service with patients expressing their gratitude for the rapid care and interventions they had received, the time GPs took to care for their needs, and the warmth of staff. Patients stated they felt they were in 'safe hands' being registered with the service.

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.

• The practice had adopted an innovative approach in helping staff to identify and respond to domestic violence, with a clear process in place to ensure those at risk were signposted to specialist services for immediate support.

• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.

• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs. The service involved patients in decisions about their care and treatment and took a holistic approach to meet their individual needs.

• There was a clear, proactive approach to seeking out and embedding new ways of providing care and treatment.

• The practice adjusted how it delivered services to meet the needs of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.

• There was an extensive governance infrastructure which supported the service to deliver high quality, person-centred care.

• The service strategy and supporting objectives are stretching, challenging and innovative whilst remaining achievable.

• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.

• Feedback from patients who used the service was consistently positive about the way staff treated them. We were provided with examples to demonstrate that staff across all sections of the service endeavoured to go ‘above and beyond’ for patients.

• There were consistently high levels of constructive staff engagement.

• There were high levels of staff satisfaction. Staff were proud to work at the practice and spoke highly of the culture.

• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation. The leadership drove continuous improvement and staff were accountable for delivering change.

• The physical, mental and social wellbeing of staff was a priority for the organisation.

• Leaders were visible, approachable and caring.

• The leadership, management and extensive governance infrastructure of the organisation assured the delivery of high-quality and person-centred care; supported learning and innovation; and promoted the development and wellbeing of all staff.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care