Nuffield Health Harrogate Fitness & Wellbeing Centre

Updated 5 June 2019

Nuffield Health is the registered provider of Nuffield Health Harrogate Fitness & Wellbeing Centre. The centre is registered with the CQC to provide the regulated activity of diagnostic and screening procedures.

The service provides a range of health assessments, consultations and screening services relating to the physical and mental wellbeing of people. Patients complete an initial comprehensive online health assessment based on a proprietary technology platform prior to their appointment, to support them to access the support and services best suited to them. The aim of the health assessments is to provide a picture of an individual’s health, covering key concerns such as the risk of diabetes, heart disease or cancer. Face to face consultations are held with either a doctor, a physiologist or both, depending on the type of assessment or consultation requested.

Patients are seen by a doctor and/or a physiologist following the initial assessment and screening processes. The findings of results are discussed with the patient, along with any recommended lifestyle changes. Patients are provided with a comprehensive report detailing the findings of the assessment. The reports include advice and guidance on how the patient can improve their health and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Patients who may require further investigations or any additional support are referred on to other services, such as their NHS GP, physiotherapist, nutritionist or other healthcare professional. Clinicians do not provide prescriptions to patients. In instances where a prescribed medication may be indicated, the patient is referred to their NHS GP or independent health provider.

The service is available to fee paying customers who are aged 18 years and over. It can be accessed 8am to 4.30pm each Thursday and Friday (except for bank

holidays) at the Harrogate location. However, patients can access other Nuffield Health locations nationwide. The service is not intended for use by patients requiring treatment for long-term conditions or as an emergency service.

The staff who deliver the service consist of a general manager, a doctor and a physiologist (who also acts in the capacity of clinical manager). These staff are supported by an administration team, and regional and national support is available from the wider Nuffield Health organisation.

We inspected Nuffield Health Harrogate Health & Wellbeing Centre on 16 April 2019.

Our inspection team was led by a CQC lead inspector and included a GP specialist adviser.

Prior to the inspection we asked the provider to send us a range of information. We reviewed this, along with information we already hold about the service.

During our inspection we:

• Looked at the systems in place relating to safety and governance of the service.

• Viewed a number of key policies and procedures.

• Explored how clinical decisions were made.

• Spoke with staff.

• Reviewed CQC comment cards where patients shared their views and experiences of the service.

After the inspection we:

• Spoke with a patient who had used the service over the telephone.

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 5 June 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

The service had previously been inspected in May 2018 and was found to be providing services in accordance with relevant regulations. At that time independent providers of regulated activities were not rated by the Care Quality Commission.

At this latest inspection 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 Nuffield Health Harrogate Health & Wellbeing Centre on 16 April 2019 as part of our inspection programme.

Nuffield Health refer to service users as patients and this is reflected throughout the report.

Nuffield Health Harrogate Fitness & Wellbeing Centre provides a range of health assessments, consultations and screening services relating to the physical and mental wellbeing of people. These services are available for fee paying/private patients aged 18 years or over.

This service is registered with Care Quality Commission (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 service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At Nuffield Health Harrogate Fitness & Wellbeing Centre some services are provided to patients under arrangements made by their employer with whom the servicer user holds a policy. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, at Nuffield Health Harrogate Fitness & Wellbeing Centre, we were only able to inspect the services which are not arranged for patients by their employers with whom the patient holds a policy.

The general manager 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection. There were seven comment cards completed. All these cards contained positive feedback from patients who accessed the diagnostic and screening assessment service.

We also reviewed internal patient satisfaction survey results from surveys completed after their assessments and consultations at the service. We found that these were consistently positive.

Our key findings were:

• There was an effective overarching governance framework which supported strategic objectives, performance management and the delivery of quality care. This encompassed all Nuffield Health locations and ensured a consistent and corporate approach across all sites.
• Service improvement and continuous learning was embedded at all levels.
• There was effective local management, and when required organisational support was available at regional and national level.
• Clinicians were committed to improving the outcomes of patients and delivering quality care.
• Patient feedback was consistently positive about the staff and the service they received.
• Staff satisfaction for working within Nuffield Health was high.
• The provider had developed a social impact strategy and used this to influence health and wellbeing improvement in the locality.

There was an area where the provider should make improvement:

• Review and improve procedures to feedback the outcome of incidents with the staff member who raised the incident in the first instance.

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