ACES (Cambridge)

Updated 11 November 2022

ACES (Cambridge) is an independent provider of NHS ophthalmic care in the community and one of the first centres at a national level to take fast track cataract surgery out of a hospital setting.

The service provides a community acute day care service for cataract surgery. The service is offered to patients choosing to come to Anglia Community Eye Service for day surgery who are referred by either their GP or Optometrist

The service does not currently offer other ophthalmological surgery options but could expand services to other surgical procedures. It has undergone 120 procedures between January and September 2022.

The service first registered with CQC in June 2021. ACES (Cambridge) has a registered manager in post and is registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• Diagnostic and screening procedures
• Surgical procedures

The service does not treat children.

The main service we inspected was surgery, which incorporated diagnostic and screening checks of the eyes before and after treatment. We have not reported this aspect separately.

The service did not provide outpatient appointments at the time of our inspection therefore this was not included in our report.

Updated 11 November 2022

We carried out an inspection of ACES (Cambridge) using our comprehensive methodology on 17 and 20 September 2022. This was the first time we inspected the service. We rated it as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led:

• 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, acted on them and kept good treatment records. Senior managers collected safety information from multiple locations and used it to improve the service.
• Managers and executives monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients and had access to good information. Staff provided excellent care and treatment, gave patients enough to eat and drink, and gave them pain relief when they needed it.
• 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 engaged well with patients and received overwhelmingly good feedback.
• 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 their planned procedures
• 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 very clear about their roles and accountabilities. There was a fully embedded and systematic approach to improvement, which made consistent use of recognised improvement methodology. Improvement was seen as a way to deal with performance and for the organisation to learn.

Updated 11 November 2022

We rated this service as good because it was rated good for safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

See the summary above for details.