- Independent hospital
Optical Express - Southampton (The Avenue) Hospital
Assessment report published 2 March 2026
Contents
Ratings - Refractive eye surgery
Our view of the service
Date of assessment: 21 May to 30 May 2025. This was a responsive assessment which looked at refractive eye surgery services, in response to concerns raised by some staff to the CQC.
We rated the service as Good. The service monitored outcomes and used this information to make improvements. Staff and leaders demonstrated strong teamworking and collaboration to ensure patients were treated with kindness and dignity. There were enough competent and trained staff to ensure people’s safety and meet their needs. However, leaders did not always make sure patient safety risks were mitigated in a timely way.
We found 1 breach of the regulations in relation to safe care and treatment.
People's experience of this service
We collected feedback from 5 patients on the day of inspection, observed 2 episodes of patient care and treatment during surgery, reviewed 5 patient care records and observed care and treatment provided by the service. We also reviewed patient experience survey data the service had collected in 2024. Patients we spoke with felt staff were caring and they had been included in all discussions and decision making about their care and treatment. The services’ 2024 survey following surgery showed 94% of patients felt properly consented for vision correction surgery. Alongside this, 84% of patients said they would have vision correction surgery again.