Ridgeworth House

Updated 1 July 2022

Ridgeworth House is operated by Bluecrest Health Screening Limited. The head office opened at this location in September 2019. It is an independent company providing a range of private health checks to adults across the United Kingdom. Patients can opt to do their own testing at home or could book a face to face appointment. Assessments are carried out by a team of health assessment specialists. All assessments included a personalised health report.

The service is managed by the head office located in Worthing in West Sussex. Health assessments are carried out in clinics held in hotel meeting rooms and conference centres throughout the United Kingdom. Appointments are available on specific dates from Monday to Saturday 9am to 5.35pm.

The senior leadership team consists of a chief executive officer, a chief operating officer, a chief medical officer and a team of senior leaders. The field operations team includes an external operations manager and a field performance manager. At the time of inspection the provider had a vacancy for a quality manager. The provider contacted us after the inspection to inform us this post had been filled. Assessments are carried out by around 70 field staff known as health assessment specialists who are trained in phlebotomy.

The head office has a call centre through which assessments could be booked.

Patients had access to a GP helpline which was open 24 hours a day. This was operated by a third party organisation and therefore not within the scope of this inspection. Patients could use the helpline to seek clinical advice following their results. The GP helpline role was to triage the patient to their own GP or to give advice about self care.

The service has had a registered manager in post since 2015 who is registered to manage the following regulated activities:

Diagnostic and screening procedures.

This service was inspected and not rated in April 2014, at a previous address, and under a previous inspection methodology.

We carried out an unannounced inspection on 15 March 2022 using our comprehensive inspection methodology.

Updated 1 July 2022

This service was inspected and not rated in April 2014, at a previous address, and under a previous inspection framework.

At this inspection, 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 had a system for reporting safety incidents.

Staff provided good care. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well for the benefit of patients. The website included advice on how to lead healthier lives. Key services were available to suit patients' needs.

Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs. They provided emotional support to patients.

The service planned care to meet the needs of 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 appointments.

Leaders ran services 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 to plan and manage services.

However:

Staff did not always dispose of clinical waste safely and infection control auditing process was not sufficient to aid trend and theme analysis.

The service had some systems to learn from incident themes and trends. However, these were not shared with the wider team.

There was limited evidence that patient feedback was acted upon and the service did not share learning from complaints with the wider team.

Updated 1 July 2022

The overall rating for diagnostic and screening services is good.