We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of the services on 3 August and 28 September 2022, we completed a further follow up inspection on 21 February 2023.
Beacon Park Hospital opened in May 2020, the hospital is managed by Ramsay Health Care UK Operations Ltd and is part of a network of over 34 hospitals across England. In addition, they run hospitals in Australia, Indonesia and France and Scandinavia.
As this was the first inspection of this hospital, we inspected 4 core services: surgery, medical care, outpatients and diagnostic imaging and screening. The same senior management team supported both this hospital and Ramsay Rowley Hall Hospital. The overarching governance and reporting systems worked in conjunction. Many staff worked across both hospitals.
At the time of inspection, the hospital director was the CQC registered manager and had been in post since August 2019. 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.
The hospital is registered to provide the following regulated activities:
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Family planning
• Surgical procedures
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
Following this inspection our overall rating of this service was good. We rated it as good because:
- The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe at the time of the inspection. 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, acted on them 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, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it. 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. Key services were available 7 days a week.
- Staff treated patients with great compassion and kindness, fully respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs in a person centred, holistic way, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families and carers. Feedback from patients was exceptional.
- 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 and did not have to wait too long for treatment.
- Experienced and compassionate leaders ran services very effectively using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff fully understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Staff felt respected, fully supported and valued. They were fully focused on the needs of patients receiving care and took pride in their work. Staff were very 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:
- There were gaps in cleaning documentation for the C-arm X-Ray machine and lead personal protective equipment.
- There were gaps in daily checks documentation for the C-arm X-Ray machine.
- We did not see evidence that quality assurance testing was carried out on the C-arm X-Ray machine monthly.
- One oxygen cylinder was not secure in the recovery area. This was resolved on the day of our inspection.
- A portal appliance label of check was not displayed on 1 piece of equipment. This was resolved on the day of our inspection.
- Not all records were securely. A theatre list was left in recovery which contained patient information.
- During our inspection we noted that the door to the area designated for the collection clinical waste was open with the padlock not locked.
- Several storerooms were not locked this included the intravenous medication store cupboard, the specimen room and the cleaning cupboard.
- The service provided drinks for patients, but no food was available.