St Mary's Medical Centre

Updated 30 May 2019

St Mary's Medical Centre operates under the provider New International Medical Ltd and was formed in 2012 to facilitate clinical care delivery predominantly to the local Polish and Bulgarian communities. The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry on the regulated activities of maternity and midwifery services, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, surgical procedures and diagnostic and screening procedures. The location site address that we visited as part of this inspection is St Mary's Medical Centre, 245 High Street, Stratford, London E15 2LS.

The clinical staff team includes one doctor, two specialist doctors (for anaesthetics and respiratory medicine) and a phlebotomist. Non-clinical staff are a service manager, reception and administrative staff, and a cleaner. The scope of the service had significantly reduced since our previous inspection, staff told us this was due to both specialists that were employed (e.g. in gynaecology) and Doctors that due to join the service leaving the UK. The corresponding number of consultations provided per month had also reduced between approximately 51 and 100.

The service is open Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm and Sunday 8am to 6pm. Services provided include diagnostic procedures such as blood and urine testing. The service refers patients to NHS or private services including services outside of the UK where necessary.

Prior to the inspection we reviewed information requested from the provider about the service they were providing.

The inspection was undertaken on 26 April 2019. During the inspection we spoke with doctors and the clinical services manager, analysed documentation, undertook observations and reviewed completed CQC comment cards. Feedback from a patient we spoke to and ten CQC patient comment cards showed patients found the service accessible and were satisfied with their care and treated with dignity and respect.

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 30 May 2019

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection 19 March 2018 – Unrated)

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 St Mary's Medical Centre on 26 April 2019 to follow up on breaches of regulations. CQC inspected the service on 19 March 2018 and asked the provider to make improvements regarding breaches of 12 (Safe care and treatment) and 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found this had been resolved.

The St. Marys Medical Centre is an independent health service based in Stratford, East London, providing adult and children patients consultations, treatment, and referrals where needed.

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 exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. St Mary's Medical Centre also provides massage which are not within CQC scope of registration. Therefore, we did not inspect, or report on these services.

Dr Ivelin Petrov Uzunov and Mrs Agnieszka Bilinska are the registered managers. 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.

Feedback from a patient we spoke to and ten CQC patient comment cards showed patients found the service accessible and were satisfied with their care and treated with dignity and respect.

Our key findings were:

• The practice provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised and delivered services to meet patients’ needs.

• The way the practice was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centre care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Review and improve arrangements for specific types of records retention to ensure to ensure medical records are retained in line with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) guidance in the event the provider ceases trading.
• Review and improve arrangements to ensure clinical quality improvement activity is seen through and embedded.
• Review and improve timescales set out in the complaint’s procedure.
• Review and improve signposting arrangements for patients attempting to access care and treatment out of hours when the service is closed.
• Review and improve arrangements to formalise the process for non-clinical staff continuous professional development.

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