Nuffield Health Hereford Hospital

Updated 14 July 2026

Nuffield Health Hereford Hospital is operated by Nuffield Health. The hospital has 20 inpatient beds. Facilities included 2 operating theatres, an outpatient department and diagnostic facilities. The hospital provides surgery, medical care and services for adults over the age of 18. Patients treated at the location include private and NHS patients. We conducted a planned unannounced on-site assessment of surgery services on the 3 and 10 March 2026.

We followed the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Single Assessment Framework (SAF) and assessed against the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. The overall rating for this hospital was good at the last inspection in 2016.

As part of our assessment, we looked at 10 patient records, spoke with 3 patients, 1 relative and 10 members of staff including the theatre manager, director of clinical services, ward manager, scrub nurses, anaesthetists, consultants, healthcare assistants, a recovery nurse, pre-operative assessment lead and staff nurses.

The overall rating of this service remains good following this assessment, and we did not identify any breach in regulation.

Updated 4 February 2026

We followed the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Single Assessment Framework (SAF) and assessed against the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. The overall rating for this hospital was good at the last assessment in 2019.

The rating of this service remains good following this assessment, and for all key lines of enquiry and we did not identify any breach in regulation.

Updated 17 March 2017

We rated this service as good for being safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led.

Surgery was the main activity of the hospital. Where our findings on surgery also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the surgery section.

• Patient safety was monitored and incidents were investigated to assist learning and improve care.

• Staff complied with use of personal protection equipment and handwashing.

• There were arrangements in place to safeguard people from abuse that reflected relevant legislation and local requirements.

• Patients had their needs assessed, care planned and delivered in line with evidence-based guidance, standards and best practice.

• Policies and procedures reflected current guidelines and adherence was monitored with a schedule of local audits.

• Staff were aware of their responsibilities surrounding consent and staff understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

• There were systems in place to ensure that staff were competent to provide effective care. Annual appraisals and registration checks were carried out.

• Patients told us how staff treated them with kindness and dignity and consistently went the extra mile to meet their needs. Patients were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care.

• Staff worked in partnership with patients and showed determination and creativity to overcome obstacles to delivering care. For example, the matron and the team worked closely with a patient with anxiety issues to empower them to attend and undergo surgery.

• Patients were unanimously complimentary about the care they had received. This was also reflected in the positive feedback in patient satisfaction surveys.

• There were areas that did not meet infection prevention and control guidance. Flooring in five of the consulting rooms in the outpatient department was non-compliant with Health Building Note (HBN) 00/10 Part A Flooring (Department of Health 2013) 2.9.

• Re-sheathable needles were not available to reduce the risk of sharps injuries and the sharps bin on the resuscitation trolley was not labelled to allow traceability when disposing of sharps. These issues were addressed during the inspection.

• There were no indications for staff in the diagnostic imaging department as to the recommended thresholds (relative to the reference levels) at which excessive radiation doses should be reported, which is recommended to assist and remind radiographers. This was addressed during our inspection.

• There was no anaesthetic consultant lead for the pre-assessment service.

• The reception waiting area, backed onto two patient changing cubicles. These were not sound proofed, which could compromise patient dignity and confidentiality.