Diamond-Garrott Ltd @ Belmont House Clinic

Updated 13 July 2023

Diamond-Garrott Ltd

Belmont House Clinic

Gloucester Road

Patchway

Bristol

BS34 5BQ

This service registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2021. The services offered include consultation, diagnostic and minor treatments for ophthalmic conditions such as cataracts (an eye condition where the lens develops cloudy patches) and glaucoma (an eye condition where the optic nerve becomes damaged).

This service is registered with the CQC for providing the regulated activities of Treatment of disease, disorder or injury and Diagnostic and screening procedures. They are registered to provide care to adults (people aged over 18). They are treating on average 1-50 patients a month and approximately 300 patients per year.

The service is situated in a shared building, where the buildings management held responsibility for the cleaning arrangements and some of the premises risk assessments, for example, buildings and fire risk assessments, legionnaires servicing and some infection prevention and control audits.

The registered manager and lead clinician for the service employed a bank staff member to support the testing of patients’ eyes on an occasional basis.

The service is open on Fridays between 8:30am and 5:30pm.

How we inspected this service

We gathered and reviewed information prior to and during the inspection which was obtained from the provider. We asked the provider to return a provider information pack (PIR) prior to the start of the inspection which we reviewed before the site visit. We spoke with the registered manager and reviewed patient feedback sent to us.

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 13 July 2023

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The service was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2021 and this is the first inspection since registration.

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? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Diamond-Garrott Ltd @ Belmont House as part of our planned inspection programme.

Diamond-Garrott Ltd is a private medical service located in the Bristol Area, situated in Belmont House. It provides consultation and diagnostic services and treatment for ophthalmic conditions such as glaucoma and cataracts under this registration. The services at this location included the use of a laser for diagnostic and minor treatment purposes, general ophthalmology including eye infections or discomfort. The service operated from a room within a shared building at Belmont House. Where the treatment required surgical intervention such as cataract surgery (involves replacing the cloudy lens inside your eye with an artificial one), intraocular lens for astigmatism (where the eye is shaped more like a rugby ball than a football) this would take place at a local hospital where the provider has practicing privileges. Therefore, we did not inspect or report on these services.

The service is led by a consultant ophthalmologist, who 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.

As part of the inspection, we reviewed feedback provided to us through CQC “Feedback on care” forms.

Our key findings were:

• There were systems and processes in place but these were not always clear or embedded to keep patients safe.
• Oversight of recruitment and training was not monitored effectively or in line with service policies to ensure the quality and safety of services being provided.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Patients were treated with kindness and respect. They were involved in decisions about their care.
• Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way.
• The service promoted the delivery of quality, person centred care.

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

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.
• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Record and review information from external sources including peers, stakeholder and regulatory bodies.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care