Sapphire Medical Clinics (“Sapphire Medical”), a multi-award-winning medical cannabis clinic and the first Care Quality Commission (“CQC”) registered clinic, has today received an Outstanding Rating in Leadership with a Good rating overall in its CQC report, making it the highest-rated medical cannabis clinic in the UK. This is the first time an Outstanding rating has been awarded in the medical cannabis sector.
The recent CQC inspection highlights the outstanding initiatives designed and achieved by the team at Sapphire Medical. The report specifically references high-quality person-centred care, international cross collaborations, bespoke technology solutions and proactive new approaches of providing patient care.
Within the Outstanding rating for ‘Well-Led’, the report includes recognition of “The leadership, governance and culture was used to drive and improve the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.” The inspector noted, “The service was focused on the needs of the patients” and “Feedback about the practice was extremely positive from patients and peers. The clinic had received two awards for best medical cannabis clinic from service users and the industry.”
Dr Mikael Sodergren, Managing Director of Sapphire Medical, commented on the CQC report, “We are delighted that the CQC recognises our consistent focus on patient safety and excellence in delivery of care across the whole service. As the first CQC-registered clinic to prescribe medical cannabis, we are committed to setting the highest possible standard in all areas. It is a great testament to the team that the feedback was exclusively positive with no areas identified for improvement.”
Dr Daniel Couch, Medical Lead at the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, commented, “We congratulate Sapphire Medical Clinic on this extremely positive CQC inspection report. Ensuring safe, high quality and regulated access for patients in this sector is essential, as well as the focus on collecting Real World Evidence. Innovations to improve the patient experience is essential to foster high quality healthcare and Sapphire are clearly setting the standards in the rapidly growing medical cannabis.”
Keasha Johnson, living with chronic primary pain, is a patient at Sapphire Medical Clinics. She commented, “It is fantastic to read such a positive report from the CQC on Sapphire Medical Clinics and it came as no surprise to me as a service user. The findings chime with my experience as I’ve found the IT system really helpful in organising appointments and reordering prescriptions, as well as being supported by the team with instant communication. For patients living with chronic conditions, I recommend this outstanding clinic.”
The full report is available here (link https://api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/reports/049052a5-6ee3-4957-8c50-a5d1aab90336?20210726070218)
