Effect Doctors

This service is rated as Good overall.

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

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Effect Doctors as part of our inspection programme. This was the first inspection of this service after the provider had registered with the CQC in March 2020.

Effect Doctors provide private diagnostic blood testing for patients which are sent to a GP for review and a report is subsequently generated and sent to the patient with the options of follow up from either their NHS GP and/or a private GP appointment; intravenous vitamin infusions, and vitamin injections.

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. Effect Doctors provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, for example, anti-wrinkle and facial filler treatments which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services. In addition, during the pandemic, the service had been providing COVID 19 self-testing kits for patients which we did not inspect or report on.

The Chief Medical Officer 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 feedback the service received from six patients. All patients rated the service as ‘Excellent’ with five out of five stars.

Our key findings were:

The service had not been previously inspected as having been registered March 2020. Despite the reduced regulated activity as a result of the pandemic, we found the following areas of good practice:

• The service had enough clinical staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right treatment.
• The service controlled infection risk well. Staff kept themselves, equipment and the treatment room clean.
• Systems for the management of stock of intravenous infusions, vitamin injections and emergency medicines, were operating effectively.
• Staff we spoke with told us how they would care for a patient in a respectful and kind manner.
• The service involved patients in decisions about their care and treatment and took into account their individual needs.
• The service encouraged feedback from patients. Staff encouraged patients to leave an online review or complete a handwritten survey and these were used to monitor performance.
• The service had ensured staff had appropriate inductions and training to cover the scope of their work.
• Staff stated they worked well together as a team.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review the intercollegiate guidance for safeguarding to assure all staff are appropriately trained according to their role in the service.
• Consistently incorporate the ‘QRISK’ (an algorithm which calculates a person's risk of developing a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years) as part of the consultation process for patients.
• Consider incorporating mental health questions into the consultation process for patients.
• Develop a policy to support the service’s clinical decision to not provide iron intravenous infusions for patients who decline to share information with their GP.
• Provide information for patients on the service website about how to raise concerns or make a complaint.
• Formalise arrangements for the handling of patient information in the event of the service ceasing to trade.
• Formalise a business strategy and develop supporting business plans to achieve service priorities.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care