The Medic Clinic

Updated 6 December 2021

The Medic Clinic is an independent GP led service operated by The Medic Clinic Ltd. Services are provided at 90 High Street, Bedford, MK40 1NN and a link to the provider’s website is below:

www.medicclinic.co.uk

The service places an an emphasis on preventative medicine and lifestyle advice for both adults and children. It offers various services from GP and consultant appointments to physiotherapy and ultrasound services and caters for both acute and on-going health problems. The clinic operates from high street premises in the centre of Bedford. Although it has no on-site parking, there is ample pay and display parking nearby.

The premises are fully accessible to all patients with four clinical rooms provided on the ground floor. There is also a reception/waiting area, staff area, patient and staff toilets.

The service is provided by the lead GP (who is also the registered manager), supported by another GP, one paramedic practitioner, one nurse, one health care assistant, and two patient liaison team members.

The service offered pre-bookable telephone and face-to-face consultations for adults and children, seven days per week, between 9:30am and 5:30pm.

Outside these hours calls were diverted to the mobile phone of the on-call GP where advice could be given or appointments booked. If the patient needed to be seen urgently then (depending upon the nature of the issue) they would be advised to dial 999 or the NHS out of hours provider on 111.

How we inspected this service

Pre-inspection information was gathered and reviewed before the inspection. On the day of the inspection we spoke with all clinical and non-clinical staf who were present. This included GPs, the paramedic practitioner, the nurse, and the patient liason team members.

We also reviewed a wide range of documentary evidence including policies, written protocols and guidelines, recruitment and training records, significant events, and patient survey results.

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 6 December 2021

This service is rated as Good overall. This service was registered by the CQC on 1 July 2020 and this is the first time it has been inspected and rated.

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 The Medic Clinic on 4 November 2021 as part of our inspection programme as the service had not previously been inspected.

The Medic Clinic is registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The Medic Clinic is a private medical clinic, with an emphasis on preventative medicine and lifestyle advice for both adults and children. It offers various services from GP and consultant appointments to physiotherapy and ultrasound services and caters for both acute and on-going health problems. The clinic operates from high street premises in the centre of Bedford. Although it has no on-site parking, there is ample pay and display parking nearby.

The service is managed on a day to day basis by two GPs, one of whom is both the nominated individual and 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.

Due to the current pandemic we were unable to obtain comments from patients via our normal process of asking the provider to place comment cards within the service location. However, we saw from internal surveys and reviews on social media that patients were consistently positive about the service, describing staff as professional, kind, polite, non-judgemental and caring. Patients also commented on the service being well maintained and clean. We did not speak with patients on the day, as there were none attending for regulated activities.

Our key findings were:

• The service had safety systems and processes in place to keep people safe. There were systems to identify, monitor and manage risks and to learn from incidents.
• There were regular reviews of the effectiveness of treatments, services, and procedures to ensure care and treatment was delivered in line with evidence-based guidelines.
• Staff treated patients with compassion, respect and kindness and involved them in decisions about their care.
• There were systems in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from abuse and staff we spoke with knew how to identify and report safeguarding concerns. All staff had been trained to a level appropriate to their role.
• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• Clinical staff we spoke with were aware of current evidence-based guidance and they had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• There was evidence of quality improvement, including clinical audit.
• Consent procedures were followed and these were in line with legal requirements.
• Staff we spoke with were aware of their responsibility to respect people’s diversity and human rights.
• Systems were in place to protect personal information about patients. The service was registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the clinic within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• The service had proactively gathered feedback from patients.
• Governance arrangements were in place. There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, face to face basic life support training had not been completed during the last 12 months. The provider should arrange this as soon as possible once restrictions allow.

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