We carried out a review of the data available to us about Optimax Laser Eye Clinics - Manchester on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Optimax Laser Eye Clinics - Manchester, you can give feedback on this service.
Optimax Laser Eye Clinics Manchester is operated by Optimax Clinics Ltd. Facilities at the Manchester clinic include a laser treatment room, a recovery room, four consultation rooms and a topography room.
The service provides refractive (laser) eye surgery and pre and post-operative care for patients over the age of 18, who self-refer and pay for their own treatment.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced visit to the clinic on 31 July 2019.
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? Where we have a legal duty to do so 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 the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
The main service provided by this clinic is refractive eye surgery.
Services we rate
We had not previously rated this service. We rated it as Good overall.
We found good practice in relation to refractive eye surgery:
The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. The service had suitable premises and equipment and looked after them well.
Patient outcomes were robustly measured, and the service monitored and implemented changes in best practice guidance and standards swiftly. Pain relief was assessed appropriately, and managers made sure staff were competent.
Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and helped them understand their treatment options and choices.
Patients could access the service when they wanted to, and services were planned to meet the needs of the individual patients. The service made it simple for patients and their relatives to give feedback or raise concerns.
Managers promoted a positive culture that supported and valued staff. Staff were clear on their roles and responsibilities. Leaders operated effective governance processes. Leaders and teams used systems to manage performance effectively. They identified and escalated relevant risks and issues and identified actions to reduce their impact.
Ann Ford
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North)
Optimax Laser Eye Clinics - Manchester is operated by Optimax Clinics Limited. Facilities include four floors with no disabled access. The reception, main waiting room, topography room and two consultation rooms are located on the ground floor; the first floor has a waiting area, managers’, office, two storerooms, counselling room and doctor’s room. The second floor is a staff only area with kitchen. The basement has public and staff toilets, waiting area, preparation, recovery, laser room and staff changing rooms.
The service provides refractive eye surgery only. If a patient required further care or surgery using anaesthesia or sedation, as an example, lens replacement surgery, patients are referred for private surgery to another Optimax Clinics Limited branch. If patients had lens surgery in another Optimax Clinics Limited branch the Manchester location provided pre and post-operative care. We inspected refractive eye surgery.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 03 August 2017 along with an unannounced visit to the location on 11 August 2017.
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? Where we have a legal duty to do so 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 Optimax Clinics Limited understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Services we do not rate
We regulate refractive eye surgery services but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.
We found the following areas of good practice:
However, we found the following issues that the provider needs to improve:
Following this inspection, we told Optimax Clinics Limited 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 the service improve. We also issued Optimax Clinics Limited with two requirement notices for regulations breached. Details are at the end of the report.
Ellen Armistead
During our inspection we looked at care planning, quality assurance and daily records and undertook a tour of the building. We also looked at ways the service sought views from people who received treatment at the clinic.
Comments we received from patients were positive about the way they were treated by staff and doctors. They were satisfied with the care and support shown to them during the course of their treatment. Comments included, 'A brilliant service. They were all so polite and reassuring, I cannot fault them.' Also, 'Everything was explained to me throughout the process. I would recommend the clinic.'
Patients told us they were consulted throughout the treatment stages and all options were discussed with them. Patients confirmed they gave their consent to any treatment they received.
Where people had raised concerns we saw that the manager kept a record of complaints made to the clinic. Complaints were investigated following a structured process that included the nature of the complaint through to the final outcome.
All consultations and follow up appointments were carried out in private rooms to respect the privacy and confidentiality of people using the service.
Cleanliness and infection control were closely monitored and staff had received infection control training within the last twelve months and we saw evidence that the manager had carried out an annual infection control audit in January 2013.
There were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet the people's needs.