Archived: The London Eye Hospital

Updated 8 February 2018

The London Eye Hospital is a private hospital providing a range of eye treatments and surgical procedures to adults. All patients are self-paying. One of the procedures carried out as part of the service is lens implants for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which is a progressive disease of the macula (the central area of the retina) and a cause of sight loss. Consultants at this hospital developed a lens implant for patients with AMD.

The London Eye Hospital is operated by London Eye Hospital Limited. There are two locations linked to London Eye Hospital Limited, namely, 4 Harley Street and 29a Wimpole Street. Both locations are named ‘The London Eye Hospital’. Patients attend the 4 Harley Street location for an initial consultation, optometry tests and aftercare. The hospital is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm.

Staff do not perform any surgery at this site. The location at 29a Wimpole Street is the surgical site where all surgical procedures take place.

Updated 8 February 2018

This report refers to outpatient services provided by the hospital at 4 Harley Street. Patients consulted at the location had their procedure performed at another location managed by the provider (London Eye Hospital, 29a Wimpole Street, London). Surgery, performed at that location, was the main activity of the hospital and we reported on it in a separate report. Where our findings on outpatient or surgery – for example, management arrangements – also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the relevant section of the report. 

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? We rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with regulations. The main service provided by this hospital was surgery. We rated the outpatient services as requires improvement overall. However, caring and responsiveness of the hospital are rated as good.

We rated the hospital as requires improvement because:

• Medicines were not always managed safely. Medicines were dispensed without a valid prescription being completed.
• Waiting lists were not monitored and there was not enough consultant time available to deliver the EyeMax treatment for the volume of patients requesting it.
• There were no systems in place to triage patients on the waiting list. The hospital were dependent on individuals contacting the hospital to make them aware that there condition had deteriorated.
• Structures to monitor the governance and risk management systems were not effective. For example the hospital did not have a robust enough system of local audit in place. This meant improvements were not always identified or action taken.
• There was no formal strategy or supporting business plans that staff were aware of, which reflected the vision and values.

However:

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was delivered in line with relevant and current evidence based guidance and standards, including National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) best practice guidelines. For example, protocols were followed with regard to national guidance for cataract surgery.
• Staff were knowledgeable about safeguarding procedures and knew who they would report any concerns to.
• We observed care provided by staff. Throughout the outpatient department, all staff were helpful and professional, putting patients and their relatives at ease.
• Patients and relatives told us there privacy and dignity were always respected and staff were kind and understanding.
• Staff told us that local leadership within outpatients was good.  The manager was approachable, supportive and staff worked together as a team. Staff were proud of their service and were keen to ensure patients received the best care.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help it move to a higher rating. Details are at the end of the report.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 12 April 2017

We rated the service as requires improvement because:

• Medicines were not always managed safely. Medicines were dispensed without a valid prescription being completed.
• Waiting lists were not monitored and there was not enough consultant time available to deliver the EyeMax treatment for the volume of patients requesting it.
• There were no systems in place to triage patients on the waiting list. The hospital were dependent on individuals contacting the hospital to make them aware that there condition had deteriorated.
• Structures to monitor the governance and risk management systems were not effective.
• There was no formal strategy or supporting business plans that staff were aware of, which reflected the vision and values.

However:

• Patients’ needs were assessed and care was delivered in line with relevant and current evidence based guidance and standards, including National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) best practice guidelines. For example, protocols were followed with regard to national guidance for cataract surgery.
• Staff were knowledgeable about safeguarding procedures and knew who they would report any concerns to.
• We observed care provided by staff. Throughout the outpatient department, all staff were helpful and professional, putting patients and their relatives at ease.
• Patients and relatives told us there privacy and dignity were always respected and staff were kind and understanding.
• Staff told us that local leadership within outpatients was good. The manager was approachable, supportive and staff worked together as a team. Staff were proud of their service and were keen to ensure patients received the best care.