SpaMedica Gloucester, has been rated outstanding overall, following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in November.
The service, which is operated by SpaMedica Ltd offers cataract surgery for NHS funded operations. In the 12 months before our inspection (October 2021 to September 2022), the service performed 3158 operations.
Following the inspection, the service was rated outstanding overall. Caring, effective and responsive were also rated as outstanding. Safe and well-led were rated as good.
Catherine Campbell, CQC head of hospital inspection, said:
“I’m delighted to say that SpaMedica Gloucester has been awarded CQC’s highest rating of outstanding overall after our recent inspection.
“We found the facilities were appropriate for the services being delivered. The environment had been adapted to support people living with dementia, including clear signage and adapted toilet facilities. Staff could provide anxiety fiddle balls for people who were anxious and they told us they wanted to expand this further by working with local crafts people in providing single use crochet fiddle blankets. These are handheld items that encourage fidgeting and rhythmic, repetitive motion and can calm anxiety.
“Although we pointed out one or two areas where some further improvements could be made, overall, the service is incredibly well run and should be upheld as an exemplar of best practice which others can, and should, learn from. Well done to everyone involved.”
Inspectors found the following during this inspection:;
- Feedback from people using the service was consistently positive about the way staff treated them.
- Referral to treatment times were much better than the England average.
- The service provided a 24-hour, seven day on call service and managed post-operative complications in house whenever possible, rather than sending people to an NHS provider.
- Following a research programme in the organisation, people who were identified as high risk of post-operative infection could be administered a steroid injection on the day of surgery in addition to being provided with eye drops to take home.
- The service ran an accreditation scheme for local opticians to give people a wider choice of follow up locations.
- We saw how the optometry room had been reconfigured to make people central to all the equipment instead of people moving from one machine to the next.
- The service provided free transport for people who met the criteria and paid for taxis or public transport when this could not be used.