Building Three

Updated 15 April 2022

Building Three is one of three locations in Somerset run by the provider, Integrated Pathology Partnerships. Building Three is a purpose designed fully equipped laboratory. It provides routine pathology services excluding blood transfusion, to primary and secondary care providers across Somerset and a private contract for sexual health testing in London. It is part of an NHS Joint Venture with Integrated Pathology Partnerships, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The centre is located within an industrial estate and the building comprises a set of self-contained laboratories providing analysis in the disciplines of clinical chemistry, haematology, microbiology, histology and cytology. The provider operates a ‘hub and spoke’ design for services. The hub is an offsite state of the art laboratory (Building Three) to process ‘non-acute’ work. The spokes are termed ‘Essential Service Laboratories’ (ESLs) providing acute services designed to meet the clinical needs of Taunton and Yeovil hospitals.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? We did not inspect the caring domain at this inspection as the laboratory does not have any direct contact with patients.

The provider is registered to provide the following regulated activity

• Diagnostic and screening procedures

The location has a registered manager in post since 2020. Registered managers have a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associated regulations about how the service is run.

The provider employed 202 members of staff across the three sites. Technical and managerial staff are employed by Integrated Pathology Partnerships while clinical staff are employed by partners in the joint venture with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Yeovil District Hospital Foundation Trust.

The previous inspection of this service was March 2013 when the provider had met the standards but was not rated.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the unannounced inspection on 15 February 2022.

Updated 15 April 2022

We do not rate this service. We found:

• The service had enough staff to provide the right level of service. Staff had training in key skills and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks, acted on them and kept good records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.
• Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and had access to good information. Limited key services were available seven days a week. Services were available to support timely care.
• The service was planned to meet the needs of local people.
• Leaders had the skills and abilities to run the service 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. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to continually improving services.

However;

• There was a failure to inform CQC of incidents which is a legal requirement of the regulations. The registered address of the head office and website address were incorrect. The statement of purpose was incorrect and had not been updated.

Updated 15 April 2022

We did not rate this service. See the summary above for what we found.