CQC rates London cancer treatment service outstanding

Published: 14 July 2023 Page last updated: 14 July 2023
Categories
Media

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the GenesisCare Centre for Radiotherapy at Cromwell Hospital outstanding following an inspection in March.

This service is located within Cromwell Hospital but is independently run by Genesis Cancer Care UK Limited. It provides cancer treatment both privately and through the NHS. This was the first time CQC inspected this service.

Following this inspection, the service has been rated outstanding overall, as well as for being caring, responsive and well-led. It was rated good for being safe and effective.

Catriona Eglinton, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said:

“When we inspected the GenesisCare Centre at Cromwell Hospital we were very pleased to find leaders had encouraged an exceptional culture in which people’s needs and well-being were at the heart of their care.

“People and their loved ones told us their interactions with staff were always above their expectations and no concern seemed too small to raise. We saw staff took a genuine interest in people’s needs, and arranged additional support such as translators or interpreters to make sure people could communicate their preferences.

“We also saw staff understood the emotional and social impact people’s treatment or conditions could have on them and the loved ones supporting them. The service worked with a charity on the same site to support people with services such as counselling, massage therapy and sessions on relaxation techniques.

“We found this to be a compassionate, well-led service that focused on people’s needs. The whole team deserve to be congratulated for their hard work, and other services should look at this one to see what they could learn.”

Inspectors also found: 

  • When people needed treatment over multiple days the centre helped to pay for accommodation nearby and offered a free taxi service
  • The service had a chaperone service, and encouraged people to access it if they were anxious about their treatment
  • Staff knew how to care for people with dementia, autistic people and people with learning disabilities, and gave them care passports to make sure their needs and preferences were met
  • Leaders encouraged staff to continually develop their skills and share their learning to improve the service
  • Leaders encouraged an open culture in which everyone felt comfortable raising concerns and giving feedback. When people did raise concerns, leaders investigated and took action
  • The service was one of only four in the UK using a new piece of equipment to reduce side effects from radiation treatments, and was sharing lessons from this both inside and outside the organisation.

Contact information

For enquiries about this press release, email regional.comms@cqc.org.uk.

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.