My Specialist GP

Updated 23 June 2023

My Specialist GP was first registered with CQC in 2019 and is registered to treat patients of all ages. The service provides maternity and midwifery services, family planning, treatment of disease, disorder or injury, surgical procedures and diagnostic and screening procedures regulated activities which include doctor led consultations for a range of primary medical care needs. This includes men’s and women’s heath, sexual health, joints and injuries, mental health and minor surgery. The service also offers tests and swabs, vaccinations and, several specialist services including cardiology, ophthalmology and nutritional advice. Activities outside the CQC scope of registration include skin peels and fat freezing.

My Specialist GP’s address, and that of the provider, Private Specialist GPS Ltd, is The Marlow Clinic, Crown House, Crown Road, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 2HL. The clinic is located in the centre of Marlow and can be accessed via public transport, on foot or by car. The clinic has parking spaces for patients and there are several public car parks nearby.

The opening times are:

Monday, Wednesday and Thursday: 9am to 5pm

Tuesday and Friday: 9am to 6pm

Saturday: 9am to 5pm

Sunday: Closed

How we inspected this service

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, CQC has continued to regulate and respond to risk. However, taking into account the circumstances arising as a result of the pandemic, and in order to reduce risk, we have conducted our inspections differently. This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the service and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

We carried out this inspection on 31 May 2023. Before carrying out an onsite inspection, we looked at a range of information that we hold about the service. Before and during our visit, we interviewed staff, reviewed documents, and made observations relating to the service and the location it was delivered from.

Due to the current pandemic, we were unable to obtain comments from service users via our normal process where we ask the service to place comment cards in the service location.

During our inspection we:

• Spoke with the registered manager
• Spoke with staff
• Reviewed service’s documents and policies
• Completed an onsite visit

To get to the heart of service users’ experiences of care and treatment, we asked the following questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it well-led?

Updated 23 June 2023

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection March 2022)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced focused inspection on 31 May 2023, for My Specialist GP to follow up on breaches of regulations. The key questions we inspected were, are services safe; are services effective; and are services well-led?

We inspected the service on 30 March 2022 and asked the service to make improvements regarding safety and good governance:

• We issued a Requirement Notice to the My Specialist GP for failing to comply with Regulation 12, (1), Safe care and treatment, of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. During this follow up inspection in May 2023, we found the service had made some improvements, but we identified new concerns which demonstrated a continued breach of this regulation.
• We issued a Requirement Notice to the My Specialist GP for failing to comply with Regulation 17, Good governance, of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. During this follow up inspection in May 2023, we found the service was compliant with this regulation

My Specialist GP offers private GP services including consultations, tests, swabs and vaccinations. The service supports patients in the following specialist areas: men’s health, women’s health, paediatrics, ultrasound scanning, joints and injuries, sexual health, minor surgery including cyst, wart and lipoma removal, mental health, cardiology, skin problems, ophthalmology and nutrition. The service also offers other non-regulated aesthetic treatments.

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. My Specialist GP provides a range of non-surgical cosmetic interventions, therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

My Specialist GP is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury, Diagnostic and screening procedures, Surgical procedures, Family planning and Maternity and midwifery services. The managing director 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.

Our key findings were:

• Staff had completed appropriate training in line with the provider’s own policy.
• An induction process was in place for all new clinical and non-clinical staff.
• Staff had the skills, knowledge, experience, and training to provide an effective service. However, the service did not have safeguards and a system in place to ensure care and treatment was safe to continue when the patient did not consent for their information to be shared with their NHS GP.
• There was effective and open communication and information sharing amongst the staff team.
• There were regular team meetings and staff felt motivated to contribute to driving improvement within the service.
• Clinicians were qualified and experienced in the areas of care they provided.
• There were appropriate arrangements to manage medical emergencies and suitable emergency medicines and equipment in place.
• Policies provided up to date, relevant and sufficient information, to provide effective guidance to staff.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients (refer to requirement notice at the end of the report for more detail).

In addition to the above, the areas where the provider should:

• Implement an effective system for monitoring and recording the fridge temperature in line with own policy.
• Implement an effective system to ensure that governance and quality assurance processes were effective and individual GP’s work is monitored and audited through a review of their consultations.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

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