Barnes Private Practice

Updated 20 May 2022

Barnes Private Practice was established in the 1950s and has been located at the present address at 22 Castlenau, London, SW13 9RU since 1995. In 2019 Barnes Private Practice was acquired by HCA Healthcare UK and had a new registration with the CQC on 15 January 2020. 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; Family Planning, Surgical Procedures, and Diagnostic and Screening Procedures.

Within the service building there are three healthcare practitioners who offer physiotherapy, dermatology, and urology services which were not inspected as part of this inspection.

The service is open Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 18:30. Home visits to patients were available from the GPs for patients where necessary. When the service is closed, the practice telephone number is diverted to the GP on call. The GP on call duties are shared between the service GPs. The service offers patients a mobile/call out service 24 hours a day, everyday.

The service currently has approximately 4100 patients registered and treats approximately 500 patients each month. The cost of care and treatment provided by the service is detailed for patients in advance.

The service employs two General Practitioners, a Practice Manager, and an administrator.

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, during which we spoke with the Registered Manager, Practice Manager, Head of Operations, two GPs and one receptionist. We 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 20 May 2022

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Requires improvement

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Barnes Private Practice on 8 March 2022 as part of our independent health inspection programme. Barnes Private Practice provides an independent GP consulting service for private patients from consulting rooms at 22 Castlenau, London, SW13 9RU. 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 Basil Street Practice.

This was the first comprehensive inspection of the practice following its new CQC registration of the service on 15 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 15 patients as part of a practice survey and 15 online reviews. All feedback was very positive about the service with patients expressing their gratitude for the time GPs took to care for their needs and the warmth of staff.

Our key findings were:

• The systems in place to keep patients safe and protected from avoidable harm, required improvement.

• Patients prescribed high-risk medicines were not always being appropriately monitored and reviewed to keep them safe.

• There was compassionate leadership at all levels. However, improvement in awareness of leaders to required improvements to some practice processes and systems to support good governance and management was necessary.

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

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

• There was a 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.

• There was an extensive governance infrastructure which supported the delivery of the service.

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

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

• Leaders were visible, approachable and caring.

We found two breaches of regulations.

The provider must:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

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