The Northway Clinic

Updated 15 December 2022

The Northway Clinic is an independent health service based in front of Canning Town transport hub, that is approximately five minutes away from Canary Wharf financial district. The service provides consultations and treatment for children and adults of all nationalities and ages.

The service directly employs a managing director, service manager, sales and marketing manager, three receptionists, three phlebotomists and three nurses. A number of self-employed clinicians also work for the service on a contractual basis including a clinical lead, a general practitioner, a dermatologist, two otorhinolaryngologist, an urologist, a cardiologist, two gynaecologists, one physiotherapist, an orthopaedic specialist and an anti-ageing specialist.

The provider, Baltic Medical Centre Limited, undertakes regulated activities from two locations (The Northway Clinic and The Baltic Medical Centre) and is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities: diagnostic and screening procedures; family planning; surgical procedures; and treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The Northway Clinic service is open from Monday to Saturday (except on bank holidays), with appointments available from 9am to 7pm.

The registered manager of the service is the managing director. Like registered providers, registered managers 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.

How we inspected this service

Throughout the pandemic CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently.

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Completing clinical searches on the practice’s patient records system and discussing findings with the provider.
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• Requesting evidence from the provider.
• A site visit.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we asked the following questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 15 December 2022

This service is rated as Good overall.

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at The Northway Clinic to enable the Commission to provide a quality rating for the services provided. We previously carried out inspections of The Northway Clinic location on 7 April 2022 and on 8 July 2022. Previous inspection reports can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for The Northway Clinic on our website www.cqc.org.uk.

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? – Good

The Northway Clinic is an independent health service based in front of Canning Town transport hub, that is approximately 5 minutes away from Canary Wharf financial district.

Our key findings were:

• There were effective arrangements to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse and harm.
• Systems were in place for patients’ clinical needs assessment, care and prescribing in line with evidence-based guidance.
• The service had systems to identify and learn from significant incidents.
• The appropriateness of clinical care and treatment was reviewed effectively, including through clinical peer review and quality improvement activity.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.
• There was a positive working culture and effective leadership and governance arrangements were in place.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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