This service is rated as Good overall. (The service has not been rated previously, but was inspected in February 2018 and was found to be providing care and treatment in accordance with the relevant regulations.)

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 Smart Clinics Wandsworth as part of our inspection programme.

Smart Medical Clinics Limited provides private general practice services from two separately registered locations in London: The Smart Clinics Wandsworth and The Smart Clinics Brompton Cross. This inspection concerned only The Smart Clinics Wandsworth, located at 15 Bellevue Road, Wandsworth, London, SW17 7EG.

The service is located in a converted residential and business use property with street level access into a reception and waiting area. The building is not fully accessible to wheelchair users and does not have accessible facilities. There are patient toilets, a shower room and baby changing facilities available. Patients requiring additional access support are directed at the time of booking to the providers other location. There are three clinical consultation and treatment rooms, storage areas and an administration office.

Services are available to any fee paying patient. Services can be accessed through an individual, joint or family membership plan or on a pay per use basis.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some general exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of service and these are set out in Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At Smart Clinics Wandsworth some services are provided to patients under arrangements made by an insurance company with whom the servicer user holds a policy (other than a standard health insurance policy. These types of arrangements are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, at Smart Clinics Wandsworth, we were only able to inspect the services which are not arranged for patients by an insurance company with whom the patient holds a policy (other than a standard health insurance policy).

The service has two CQC registered managers who work jointly across both provider locations in service management roles. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.

Sixteen people provided feedback about the service. All sixteen people were wholly positive about the care that they had received.

Our key findings were:

• The service had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Services were provided to meet the needs of patients.
• Patient feedback were received was consistently positive. The clinic also received high levels of positive feedback directly.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.
• There were two areas we suggested that the service should make improvements when we inspected in February 2018. Action was ongoing on both, but was not yet completed.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Implement planned protocols to address risks associated with prescribing controlled drugs, including with patients giving false identity information when booking an appointment.
• Demonstrate quality improvement through follow up audit cycles.

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

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 8 February 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.

Prior to our inspection patients completed CQC comment cards and forms via the CQC website telling us about their experiences of using the service. Sixteen people provided wholly positive feedback about the service.

Our key findings were:

• The service had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Services were provided to meet the needs of patients.
• Patient feedback for the services offered was consistently positive.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.

We identified areas where the service could improve and should:

• Review how the service checks and verifies patient identity, including verifying the identity of adults accompanying child patients.
• Demonstrate quality improvement through follow up audit cycles.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP

Chief Inspector of General Practice