Optimax Laser Eye Clinics - Leeds

Optimax Laser Eye Clinic – Leeds, is operated by Optimax Clinics Limited. Optimax hold the lease for part of the building situated on the third floor.  Facilities include reception, a main central waiting area, topography room, three consultation rooms, one treatment room, preparation room and a recovery room. There is in addition, a manager’s office, optometrist room, doctor’s room, staff kitchen / rest room, patient toilets, filing room, laser technician’s room, and electrical cupboard. Loft access was through a small staff only room.

All patient areas / rooms had disabled access and the building benefits from a lift.

The service provides refractive eye surgery only. If a patient required further care or surgery using anaesthesia or sedation, as an example, lens replacement surgery, patients were referred for private surgery to another Optimax Clinics Limited branch. If patients had lens surgery in another Optimax Clinics Limited branch, the Leeds location provided pre and post-operative care. The clinic recently started to offer Mibo-Thermoflo (a process in which the eye is massaged through ultrasound, as an aid to dry eyes), which is outside of our scope of regulation.

We inspected refractive eye surgery.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 3 and 4 October 2017 along with an unannounced visit to the location on 27 October 2017. This was due to the clinic holding only two surgical days per month.

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? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the Optimax Clinics Limited understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we do not rate

We regulate refractive eye surgery services but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• There were low numbers of incidents and complaints.
• Staff members were positive about their working experience feeling supported to be part of a team and had worked in the service for a number of years.
• Patients spoken with and feedback to the service were positive about their experience and the outcomes from their surgery.
• All staff at the clinic had received an annual appraisal.
• Medicines were managed and administered in a safe and appropriate manner.
• Most staff were up to date with mandatory training.

However, we also found the following issues that the provider needs to improve:

• There was a lack of consistent registered general nurse cover, during surgical treatment days.
• Maintenance issues were not given priority by senior managers. Some of these issues had the potential to impact on patient care and treatment.
• Risks registers were not reflective of clinic issues and risks were not identified during environmental audits.
• General support for the clinic manager was poor.
• Clinical competencies for the extended role had not been reviewed, to ensure safe clinical practice.

Following this inspection, we issued a letter of concern and told Optimax Clinics Limited that it MUST take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it SHOULD make other improvements. We also issued Optimax Clinics Limited with two requirement notices for regulations breached. Details are at the end of the report.

Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals