England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated The Harley Street Clinic in Marylebone, west London as Outstanding, following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
The private hospital was rated Outstanding for being caring and well-led. It was rated Good for being safe, effective and responsive, during the inspection which took place in 2016.
CQC inspectors visited the Harley Street Clinic as part of its planned inspection programme. This was a comprehensive inspection which looked at five core services provided by the hospital: medical care, surgery, critical care, services for children and young people and outpatients and diagnostic imaging.
A full report of the inspection has been published on this website.
The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: "We saw some outstanding areas of care at the Harley Street Clinic. Medical Care leadership promoted an open and approachable culture always driven to provide high quality patient care.
"The management actively encouraged staff to learn and improve. Staff satisfaction surveys showed that staff felt committed to give their best.
"We found an excellent multidisciplinary team (MDT) working with close collaboration between all staff. National experts in their field with access to latest diagnostic and treatment methods attended regular MDT meetings.
"The standard of care was also outstanding. Staff were highly motivated and inspired to offer care that was kind and promoted people's dignity and were willing to go the extra mile to meet individuals' needs. We saw incidences of staff changing their shifts or working additional shifts in order to offer anxious patients continuity of care."
CQC inspectors also found:
- Staff were knowledgeable about the hospital's safeguarding policy and clear about their responsibilities to report concerns.
- Patients' pain was monitored and the effectiveness of pain management evaluated. Patients had access to different methods of pain relief.
- There were facilities in place and readily available for patients from different cultural backgrounds and for whom their first language was not English.
However the hospital must take action to ensure the skill mix of staff in the paediatric intensive care unit reflects current recommendations, which at the time of the inspection did not meet Royal College of Nursing guidelines. There were not always two trained paediatric nurses per shift.
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