Archived: East Midlands Medical Services

Updated 13 October 2021

East Midlands Medical Services is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide services from an opticians at 190 Wollaton Road, Nottingham NG8 1HJ. The provider has been registered to provide services since 21 June 2013.

The provider, East Midlands Medical Services, is registered with the CQC to carry out the regulated activities of treatment of disease, disorder or injury and diagnostic and screening procedures from the location.

East Midlands Medical Services is a community eye service specialising in the provision of on-going testing and management for patients with glaucoma. In addition, it provides a paediatric service specialising in the management of lazy eyes, squints and children who need glasses. These services are funded by the NHS and patients are referred to the service from a local hub

following a GP assessment.

The staff work primarily within other services and on average work one day a week on a scheduled basis within this service, depending on demand and availability. The clinic offers appointments at variable times depending on demand:

• Monday to Friday 9am until 5pm
• Saturday 9am until 4.30pm
• Sunday 10am until 4pm

The main workforce consists of three ophthalmologists, 12 optometrists, three orthoptists, two

administrative staff and the service manager. The service utilises a room within an opticians and has a safe storage area for records and equipment within the site. All patient treatment rooms are on the ground floor and there is an accessible disabled toilet and baby changing facilities available. There are some parking spaces available on the shop front and it is located on a bus route.

Before visiting we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service and information which was provided by the provider prior to the inspection taking place.

During the inspection:

• we spoke with staff
• reviewed key documents which support the governance and delivery of the service
• made observations about the areas the service was delivered from

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 13 October 2021

This service is rated as Good overall. (Previous inspection September 2019 – Requires improvement)

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at East Midlands Medical Services. We undertook this comprehensive inspection in September 2021 to check that the provider had addressed the concerns identified at the inspection in September 2019.

At the previous inspection the provider was found in breach of two regulations: staffing and fit and proper persons employed. We checked these areas as part of this comprehensive inspection and found these had been resolved.

East Midlands Medical Services is a community eye service specialising in the provision of on-going testing and management for patients with glaucoma. In addition, it provides a paediatric service specialising in the management of lazy eyes, squints and children who need glasses.

A clinician is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. 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 service is run.

Our key findings were:

• The service provided care in a way that kept patients safe and protected them from avoidable harm.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff treated patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decisions about their care.
• The practice organised services to meet patients’ needs. Patients could access care and treatment in a timely way. This had continued during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Effective systems and processes were in place to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• The provider should continue to gather evidence of training attended by staff whose main employment is not with the provider.
• The provider should continue to monitor administrative staff workloads and systems to ensure staff are appropriately supported.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care