Updated 20 September 2022
We carried out a focused inspection of healthcare services provided by G4S at the Bristol Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) on August 16th, 2022.
We carried out this focused inspection using our inspection powers under section 60 Health and Social Care Act 2008. The purpose of this focused inspection was to determine if the services provided by G4S were meeting the legal requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 following an earlier inspection in April 2022 where a breach of regulation 15 Premises and Equipment was found. The inspection was led by a CQC inspector who was supported by another CQC inspector.
During this inspection we only focused on the following question:
Are services Safe?
We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with Regulation 15.
We do not currently rate services provided in SARCs
Background
The South West (SW) Sexual Offence Examiners (SOE) service provides forensic medical examiners and forensic nurse examiners to six Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) across the South West of England. The SARCs are based within:
• Exeter
• Truro
• Plymouth
• Gloucester
• Bristol
• Swindon
The Police and Crime Commissioner commissions the SW SOE Service. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week (including public holidays) to provide advice to police, agencies and the public. The service delivers acute forensic examinations and provides support following recent sexual assault and sexual violence. The G4S service is commissioned to see Adults and children 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During working hours there are separate services working alongside G4S that are commissioned to see Children under 18 within working hours and some limited hours over weekend days.
For the purpose of this inspection we inspected the South West SOE provision of doctors and nurses (who will be referred to as SOEs throughout the report) to perform forensic medical examinations only, and not the activity or staff that were based within the SARCs as the SARC staff were employed by different providers. We only visited the Bristol site.
At the time of inspection, the regional clinical lead was a member of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM) and five of the doctors and one nurse had received FFLM training in forensic medical examinations.
During this inspection we spoke with the registered manager who is also the regional clinical lead, and the lead SOE for the Bristol site and checked the action plan sent by the provider that set out what they would do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We also reviewed the following documents:
- Infection control audits since April 2022
- Minutes of meetings with the local NHS trust provider
- Audits of cleanliness performed by the registered manager that were unannounced to the SOEs.
G4S provide the forensic medical service, and as a condition of registration must have a person registered with the Care Quality Commission as the registered manager. Registered managers have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations about how the service is run. The registered manager for the SW SOE Service was the regional clinical lead for the provider.
During our inspection in April 2022 we identified that the provider was in breach of CQC regulations. We issued a Requirement Notice in relation to Regulation 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulation Activities) Regulations 2014; Premises and Equipment.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at: https://api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/reports/02aef6ba-82e8-4d18-b40a-87ec3cc953b6?20220614080039
At this revisit inspection we found:
- The environment in the forensic areas was clean and well maintained.
- There was evidence of regular conversations with the NHS provider who provided the SARC services.
- The provider had produced an escalation policy for SOEs to use if a poor standard of cleanliness had been identified.
- Weekly infection control audits as well as unannounced spot checks were completed to assure the SOEs of the cleanliness of the SARC.