David Gartry Eye Surgery Ltd

Updated 10 November 2023

The provider is David Gartry Eye Surgery LTD.

The location is David Gartry Eye Surgery LTD. which is based at: -

46 Wimpole Street

Marylebone

London

W1G 8SD

David Gartry Eye Surgery Ltd (also known as “The Wimpole Eye Clinic - David Gartry”) registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as an organisation in October 2015, for the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder or Injury, and diagnostic and screening and surgical procedures. The surgical procedures themselves are not carried out on site but are undertaken within a CQC registered secondary care (hospital) setting.

David Gartry Eye Surgery Ltd provides a wide range of in-person privately funded pre-operative and post-operative care, for adult patient’s over 18 years of age undergoing ophthalmic surgery. The clinic has been operating since 2015 and treats between 51 and 100 patients per month.

The provider is open and provides appointments from 8.30am to 5pm on Thursdays and Fridays only. Patients have access to Professor Gartry’s personal mobile number, the Wimpole Eye Clinic telephone number (to leave a message if non-urgent); and a secondary care (Hospital) private ward and Accident & Emergency department numbers, in the unlikely event of urgent or emergency need.

The provider has a sole and lead male doctor, Professor David Gartry, who is registered on the General Medical Council (GMC) Specialist Register for Ophthalmology. The lead doctor is working within the NHS and may work at any grade in the NHS, including at consultant level in accordance with his registration.

The lead doctor is the CQC registered manager for the provider. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the clinic is run.

The staff are one part-time lead doctor, and 2 full-time and 2 part-time practice managers that are able to cover each other and duties such as clinic manager, medical reports, enquiries line supervision, bookings management (laser, cataract, refractive and corneal surgery) with responsibility for lens implant stock, accounts, business development and clinic oversight manager. Three optometrists carrying out support roles, this includes refraction, patient assessment, scans and investigations.

How we inspected this clinic

The inspection was completed by a CQC Lead Inspector, a GP specialist advisor who carried out a site visit, spoke to staff and reviewed evidence onsite and submitted by the provider.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 10 November 2023

The clinic is rated as Good overall. This was the first CQC inspection of David Gartry Eye Surgery Ltd.

The key questions are rated as:

Are clinics safe? – Good

Are clinics effective? – Good

Are clinics caring? – Good

Are clinics responsive? – Good

Are clinics well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at David Gartry Eye Surgery Ltd as part of our inspection programme. This inspection was planned to check whether the clinic was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

David Gartry Eye Surgery Ltd provides a wide range of in-person privately funded pre-operative and post-operative care, for adult patients, over 18 years of age, undergoing ophthalmic surgery. The provider had an optometry clinic which was out of the scope of CQC registration and was not part of this inspection.

The clinical lead is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the clinic. Like registered providers, they are registered persons. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the clinic is run.

Our key findings were:

• The clinic had a safeguarding adults and children process in place to protect patients.
• All medicines that were dispensed to patients, to take home, were prescribed and dispensed by the personal authority of the treating medical practitioner.
• The provider ensured that equipment was safe and maintained according to manufacturers’ instructions.
• There was an effective system to manage infection prevention and control.
• Patients’ immediate and ongoing needs were assessed. Where appropriate this included their clinical needs and their mental and physical wellbeing.
• Clinicians had enough information to make or confirm a diagnosis.
• Leaders were knowledgeable about issues and priorities relating to the quality and future of clinics. They understood the challenges and were addressing them.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Consider if optometrists require a higher level of safeguarding adults training and regular clinical review of their consultations when carrying out work for the registered service.
• Consider if patient-facing administration staff require basic life support training.
• Take action to record all staff meetings.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Health Care