Spire Clare Park Hospital

Updated 15 November 2022

Spire Clare Park Hospital is purpose built and opened in 1984; it is run by Spire Healthcare Limited. The hospital is located just outside of Farnham, in its own grounds with parking. The hospital has two wards with 29 registered beds, used flexibly for inpatients and day care, and a 3-bedded enhanced recovery unit. All the beds are in single rooms with en-suite bathrooms. There is no emergency department or critical care services at the hospital.

The on-site facilities include three operating theatres (two with laminar airflow).

The hospital provides a range of services to patients over the age of 16 years. All patients aged 16- 18 years must undergo a risk assessment to confirm that they can follow the adult care pathway.

The hospital provides NHS funded care and care for patients who choose to self-pay or use private medical insurance. Services offered include general surgery, cosmetic surgery, orthopaedics, dermatology, physiotherapy, gynaecology, endoscopy and diagnostic imaging. We inspected the hospital as part of our focused inspection programme. This inspection looked at one core service provided by the hospital: surgery services.

The registered manager for the location is Mr Ian Thomson. The nominated individual is Mrs Alison Dickinson.

Updated 15 November 2022

Our rating of this location stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• Openness and transparency about safety was encouraged. Staff understood their responsibility to raise concerns and report incidents. When something went wrong, thorough investigation took place involving all relevant staff and people who use services. Lessons were learned and communicated widely to support improvement in other areas as well as services that were directly affected.
• Staffing levels and skill mix were planned, implemented and reviewed to keep people safe at all times. There were effective handovers and shift changes, to ensure staff could manage risks to people who used services.
• Staff were appropriately qualified and had the skills to carry out their roles effectively and took account of best practice. The learning needs of staff were identified, and training put in place to meet their learning needs. Staff were supported to maintain and further develop their professional skills and experience.
• The leadership actively shaped the culture through effective engagement with staff, people who use services and their representatives and other stakeholders.
• There was a clear governance framework to monitor quality, performance and risk at department, hospital and corporate level. Staff told us they were aware of the risks, and action taken to mitigate these risks for their individual departments.

Updated 16 August 2018

Children and young people’s services were a small proportion of hospital activity.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

Updated 22 February 2017

We rated this service as good overall. We found outpatients and diagnostic imaging was good for the key questions of safe, caring, responsive and well led. We did not rate effective, as we do not currently collate sufficient evidence to enable a rating.

There were appropriate systems in place to keep patients safe. Staff fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Patients were appropriately safeguarded from abuse and avoidable harm. Staff undertook appropriate mandatory training for their role and they protected patients from the risk of abuse and avoidable harm. The hospital was generally clean and tidy but we found areas of dust in a number of consulting rooms. Cleaning schedules were not displayed in all outpatient areas. Staff wore protective clothing and followed hand hygiene procedures to reduce the spread of infection.

Care and treatment was delivered in line with current evidence based guidance, and best practice and legislation. There was evidence of local and national audits, including clinical audits. Staff were qualified and had the appropriate skills to carry out their roles effectively. Managers supported staff to deliver effective care and treatment, through meaningful and timely appraisal.

We observed that staff were caring, kind, compassionate, and treated patients with dignity and respect. Feedback from people who used the service and those close to them was positive about the way staff treated them.

There was good availability of appointments for patients across all specialities. Access to appointments was timely; staff held clinics on weekdays into the evening and on Saturdays to suit patients’ preferences. Waiting times, delays, and cancellations were minimal and managed appropriately.

Translation services were available when required and staff made practical adjustments to accommodate patients’ individual needs, for example, when caring for patients with dementia. Complaints were taken seriously, investigated thoroughly and resulted in positive changes made to practice and procedures.

Effective governance and risk management systems were in place. Local and senior managers were visible and approachable to all staff. There was an open and supportive learning culture. Staff gave patients opportunities to provide feedback about their experiences and they used the feedback to improve the service.

Updated 15 November 2022