Archived: London City Healthcare

Updated 2 November 2021

London City Healthcare Limited is located at Ormond House, Lower Ground Floor, 63 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4N 4UA which is an office building with converted premises in central London.

The service is registered to provide the following CQC regulated activities:

• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning
• Maternity and midwifery services
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

The service provides private general practice services for fee paying clients. The service is open to patients of all ages and offers a range of services including tailored healthcare screening packages, sexual health and long-term condition management. Appointments can be booked same day or for a date in the future either online or by telephone. Clinical care is provided by two GPs, one who works remotely and one who is on site Monday and Wednesday.

London City Healthcare’s website can be found at: https://londoncityhealthcare.com/

The service is open between 7.30 am and 7 pm Monday to Friday. However, access to the GP service is available only between 9.30 am and 1.30 pm on Monday and Wednesday.

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 2 November 2021

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

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 London City Healthcare

as part of our inspection programme.

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. London City Healthcare provides a range of which are not within CQC scope of registration including physiotherapy and occupational health. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

Magnus Kauders 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:

• Most risks were well managed. However clinical equipment had not been calibrated since it was purchased in 2019; though the provider arranged for calibration shortly after our inspection. The arrangements for verifying the identification of adults accompanying children were not clear. However, we were told that consultations with children were very rare and that children attending the service were mainly there for services outside of CQC regulation.
• There was a system in place for acting on safety alerts and significant events.
• Care was provided in line with current legislation and guidance.
• The service undertook reviews of care with the aim of improving the quality of patient care.
• Patient feedback indicated that they were satisfied with the care provided and the service was easy to access during the hours were appointments were offered.
• There was a system for acting on complaints although the service had not identified an external party that patients could escalate complaints to if they were unhappy with the service’s response.
• Governance arrangements were sufficient to ensure that patients received safe and effective care though further development of systems of oversight would likely be required if the service expanded.
• The service had a clear vision, staff felt supported and there was a positive and open working culture. Although formal annual appraisals had not taken place within the last 12 months, we saw evidence of conversations between management and staff related to performance and development.

The area where the provider must make improvement as they are in breach of regulation is:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Develop governance systems around risk management and clinical safety as the service develops.
• Undertake formal annual appraisals for all staff.
• Include details of external organisations that patients can raise complaints with should they be dissatisfied with the service’s response.
• Schedule calibration of clinical equipment in accordance with manufacturer guidance.
• Put in place systems to verify the identity of adults accompanying children.

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