Avicenna Health

Updated 27 June 2019

We carried out a comprehensive inspection of Avicenna Health Limited at Hamletts of Woodford

696-702 Chigwell Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8AL, which is a private GP service providing a range of medical services, for acute and chronic conditions as well as travel health, occupational health services and medicals. The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities; Diagnostic and screening procedures, Transport services, triage and medical advice provided remotely and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. A total of 475 patients had accessed the service during the last 12 months of which 176 were new patients. The patient numbers were increasing steadily each year over the last three years.

There are four GPs, two male and two female who work one to two days a week each, and who also work in local NHS GP practices. The clinic is open 9am – 6pm, Monday to Friday, and Saturdays 9am – 2pm. Home visits are available every day of the week 9am – 9pm. Emergency care can be accessed via their NHS GP. Patients can access appointments via email or by telephone. Further information about the clinic can be found at www.avicenna-health.com. The service had a contract with a phlebotomist to deliver a home blood drawing service.

How we inspected this service

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 June 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection February 2018)

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 Location name Avicenna Health as part of our inspection programme.

Avicenna Health is a private GP service which also provides home visits based in Woodford Essex.

One of the medical directors is also 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 were unable to speak to any patients on the day of the inspection. Eleven comment cards were received all of which were positive about the care and treatment received. All patients said they felt involved in decision-making about the care and treatment they received. They told us they felt listened to and supported by staff and had sufficient time during consultations to make an informed decision about the choice of treatment available to them.

Our key findings were:

• Systems and processes were in place to identify and mitigate risks.
• Lessons were learned and improvements made when things went wrong.
• Staff had the skills and knowledge to carry out their roles and ensured they remained up to date with current best practice.
• Patients spoke directly to a GP who triaged requests for appointments. If it was felt that the service was not appropriate for the patient, they would be signposted to the most suitable service.
• GP and out of hours home visits were available if required.
• Staff treated patients with dignity and respect.
• There was a proactive approach to understanding the needs of different groups of people and to ensure they received the care to best meet their needs.
• Staff had the skills and knowledge to carry out their roles and ensured they were up to date with current best practice.
• The provider collaborated with external stakeholders to ensure patient needs could be met.
• The practice demonstrated that there was a focus on continuous improvement which was developing services.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Improve monitoring of fridge temperatures in line with recommended best practice.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care