Hereford Kidney Treatment Centre

Updated 17 August 2023

Hereford Kidney Treatment Centre is operated by Diaverum Facilities Management Limited. The service opened in November 2014. The service is commissioned by an acute NHS hospital trust to provide a dialysis service primarily serving the communities of Hereford and surrounding areas. It also accepts patient referrals from outside this area. The service has 20 dialysis stations, including four side rooms, for the treatment of adult patients.

The service is a nurse led service with medical support provided through the renal department of an acute hospital trust and a local GP practice.

The service offers "holiday" dialysis to patients out of area.

The service is open Monday to Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 7am to 11.30pm and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday from 7am to 6 pm..

• Hereford Kidney Treatment Centre is registered to provide the following regulated activities: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Under these activities the service provided:

• Haemodialysis

Hereford Kidney Dialysis has had a registered manager in post since 2014.

We previously inspected this location in June and July 2017, but did not rate it. Following our last inspection, we issued requirement notices for regulations 12 and 17, these regulations are now met.

Updated 17 August 2023

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced visit to Hereford Kidney Treatment Centre on 6 March 2023 and short notice announced visit on 12 June 2023.

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.

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 and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.
• Staff provided good care and treatment. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, 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.
• 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:

• Not all staff had received training in awareness of learning disabilities and autism.
• Patients frequently experienced a delay of more than 30 minutes to start their dialysis treatment and there was no monitoring of time patients waited to be picked up after their treatment.

Updated 17 August 2023