Archived: West Byfleet Dialysis Unit

Updated 27 March 2020

West Byfleet Dialysis Unit is operated by Fresenius Medical Care Renal Services Limited. It is a private medical dialysis unit in West Byfleet, Surrey. The unit primarily serves the community of West Byfleet. The main referring renal unit was local hospital trust’s renal department. There are on average 1350 treatments sessions delivered a month.

The service is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

We previously inspected the service in June 2017. At that time we regulated this service but we did not have a legal duty to rate it. We did highlight good practice and any issues that service provider needed to improve. As a result of the last inspection in 2017 we issued three requirement notices. During the inspection on the 11 February 2020 we found all the issues previously raised had been addressed and no regulatory breaches were found.

The units current registered manager has been in post since July 2017.

Updated 27 March 2020

West Byfleet Dialysis Unit is operated by Fresenius Medical Care Renal Services Limited. The service has 25 dialysis stations which includes four isolation rooms. The unit is built on two levels and is a purpose built facility for the treatment of chronic kidney failure. The unit has the capacity to dialyse 120 patients.

Dialysis units offer services which replicate the functions of the kidneys for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. Haemodialysis is used to provide artificial replacement for lost kidney function.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced visit to the unit on 11 February 2020.

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 provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we rate

Although we have previously inspected the service we did not have a legal duty to rate it. During this inspection we rated it as Good overall.

We found the following good areas of practice:

• 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. 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 collected safety information and used it to improve the service.

• 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. Dialysis session ran two to three times a day apart from Sunday to support timely patient care.

• 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 and did not have to wait too long for treatment.

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

• We saw the daily cleaning workload rota was not always completed. We noted there were boxes stored on the floor under the sink in the dirty utility, which could lead to contamination of the products within the boxes.

• We saw information printed on paper in the treatment area that was in poor condition and stuck to the wall with sticky tac. The paper was ripped and was not contained in a wipeable surface. This meant there was a possibility they could harbour germs and could not be cleaned effectively.

Nigel Acheson Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (London and South)

Updated 27 March 2020

Dialysis was the only activity the service provided.

We rated this service as good because it was safe,

effective caring, responsive and well-led.