SpaMedica Birmingham

Updated 14 January 2022

Spa Medica Birmingham is operated by Spa Medica Limited. It is a medically led service to deliver eyecare services to adults in the community. The Spa Medica Birmingham surgical centre was purpose built and opened in June 2018. It is a private clinic in Birmingham and primarily serves NHS patients within Birmingham. The service operates six days per week, Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm.

The clinic offers day case surgical services and outpatient appointments to NHS patients under local clinical commissioning group (CCG) contracts. All of their activity is carried out at the Birmingham centre.

The service is managed from a central referral and booking centre based in Bolton, directing patients through choice to various clinics in the UK. The surgical site is managed by a registered manager supported by an ophthalmic team which consists of:

• Ophthalmology Consultants
• Optometrists
• Registered Nurses
• Ophthalmic Technicians
• Administration Staff

Services provided at this location include:

• Outpatient appointments
• Cataract surgery
• YAG (laser procedure)
• Wet AMD (treatment for macular degeneration)
• Minor eye procedures

SpaMedica Birmingham treated 9,521 patients in the reporting period of November 2020 and October 2021.

The clinic has a registered manager in post and is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Surgical procedures
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

This is the first time we have inspected and rated this service. We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out a short notice announced inspection on 9 November 2021.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well led. The main core service provided was surgery.

Updated 14 January 2022

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as good because:

• The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service-controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. Staff collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
• Staff provided good care and treatment, gave patients enough to drink if necessary, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and supported them to make decisions about their care and had access to good information.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
• The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
• Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

However:

• Patients sometimes waited unattended for short period of time waiting to go into theatre, and those patients waiting to go into theatre were not always able to reach their call bells. We raised this with leaders following our inspection who told us there was usually a member of staff waiting with patients and would ensure staff always remain with patient’s going forward. Senior teams also told us they were in the process of designing poster signs to show patients where the call bells were if they required assistance.

Updated 14 January 2022

This is the first time we have rated this service. We rated it as good overall. We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Please refer to overall summary above.