Archived: Swingate House

This service is rated as Requires improvement overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Inadequate

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Requires improvement

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Swingate House (also known as Hertfordshire Eye Hospital) as part of our inspection programme.

Hertfordshire Eye Hospital (HEH) is a privately run service which provides a community ophthalmology service to treat and manage patients with ophthalmic conditions. The service is consultant led and delivers services in a community setting as a first point of referral for GP ophthalmology referrals (with the exception of children under 18, urgent and two week cancer referrals). The service model is to provide a community consultant led ophthalmology clinical assessment and treatment service. The service was commissioned by East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to provide services from 2012 to 31 May 2017. Herts Valley CCG commissioned HEH to provideservices from April 2013 to 31 December 2018. HEH does not currently provide services to patients.

Our key findings were:

• The service did not have comprehensive systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen.
• The service reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence-based guidelines.
• Previous patient feedback forms indicated that staff treated people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Previous patient feedback forms indicated that they were able to access care and treatment from the service within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• Structures, processes and systems to support good governance and management were not clearly set out, understood and effective.

The area where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of a regulation is:

• Ensure care and treatment is provided in a safe way to patients.
• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

Please see the specific details on action required at the end of this report.