We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 11 April 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Dottore London Clinic is a private health clinic in central London which specialises in offering medical services to Italians living in England. It offers consultations with gynaecologists, paediatricians, dermatologists, orthopedists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, ENT specialists, speech therapists,dietitians and psychotherapists.

Patients can be seen by Italian and English-speaking doctors who deliver private consultations at the clinic during during weekdays and the weekend as required.

The Italian doctors have experience gained both in the UK and Italy which allows them the advantage of traversing and overcoming any cultural or language barriers.

There are four Managing Partners, three of which are clinicians and one, the Practice 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.

There are a total of 26 consulting doctors who see patients at the clinic, most of whom are employed within the NHS. There are also two other non-clinical members of staff who assisted with admin and reception duties.

On the day of the inspection we received seven comment cards from clients of the clinic. All the cards were positive and most commented on the friendliness, efficiency and the professionalism of the staff. Several mentioned that they would recommend the clinic to a friend.

Our key findings were:

• The clinic had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the clinic learned from them and improved processes.
• Staff involved clients with their procedures and treated them with kindness, dignity and respect.
• Clients found it easy to get an appointment at a time that was convenient to them.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The clinic was well managed with supportive leadership.
• Policies and procedures had been thoroughly reviewed and applied.
• Staff were valued and appropriately trained for their roles.
• There was an increasing client demand for the clinic from an increasing geographical area.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and they should:

• Consider reviewing arrangements for monitoring and recording the expiry dates of medications.
• Consider the introduction of a second cycle to audits already undertaken.