The McCarthy Clinic at Litfield House Medical Centre

Updated 27 October 2022

The McCarthy Clinic at Litfield House Medical Centre is a registered location, the provider of which is Dr KathMCC Ltd. There is one director for the service - the nominated individual who also manages the service and provides care and treatment for patients. We will refer to this person as the nominated individual throughout this report. There is one member of staff employed in the role of health care assistant and a secretary who manages the booking line.

The service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to provide the following regulated activities: Diagnostic and screening procedures, treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.

The McCarthy Clinic at Litfield House Medical Centre is an independent health service which provides care and treatment for patients over the age of 18, who require minor surgery for anal and rectal conditions, some of which are not routinely funded by the NHS. Surgical procedures offered include treatment for anal sphincter injuries after childbirth, skin tag removal, anal fissures, incontinence, haemorrhoids (piles), anal fistula, polyps and pilonidal disease.

Patients can contact the service by telephone on 01179 731323. Appointments are available from 08.30 am to 2.30 pm each Thursday.

Parking for patients attending the clinic is available on site.

How we inspected this service

We reviewed information gathered prior to the inspection. For example, from the provider information request, and from stakeholders.

During the inspection we talked to people who used the service, interviewed the nominated individual and staff, made observations and reviewed documents.

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 October 2022

This service is rated as Good overall. This is the first inspection of this service since registration.

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 a comprehensive inspection at The McCarthy Clinic at Litfield House Medical Centre on 22 September 2022 as part of our planned inspection programme.

Our key findings were:

• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service had systems to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from abuse.
• The facilities and equipment were suitable for the operation of the clinic.
• The nominated individual had developed systems and processes to enable patients to book into the clinic and for dealing with unexpected absences of the clinicians.
• The nominated individual ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• The nominated individual and staff were trained and knowledgeable to deliver the service.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it. Patients told us they were satisfied with the service provided and reported the staff were kind and caring.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Take steps to ensure medicines are always stored securely.
• Improve the recruitment process so that clinical staff who worked closely with patients had an enhanced level disclosure and barring service check.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services