The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

DaVita (UK) Ltd - Grantham

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Unit 2, Earlesfield Lane, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 7NT (01476) 850025

Provided and run by:
DaVita (UK) Limited

All Inspections

17 April 2023

During a routine inspection

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out an unannounced visit to DaVita (UK) Ltd on 17 April 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 patients’ 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 appropriately. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients and kept good care records. They managed medicines safely. The service managed safety incidents 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 patients, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for patients to give feedback. Patients 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:

  • The service did not always follow aseptic non touch techniques in all patient connection and disconnection activities.
  • Several of the provider’s policies were out of date and still linked to the previous provider, demonstrating they had not been reviewed for at least 3 years.

18 and 22 May 2017

During a routine inspection

Renal Services (UK) Ltd - Grantham is operated by Renal Services (UK) Limited. The service at Grantham has eight treatment stations including one side room and is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 7am to 6pm and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 7am to 1pm.

There is a Service Level Agreement with University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust to provide haemodialysis (HD) to adults over the age of 18. Haemodialysis is a type of renal replacement therapy offered to patients with chronic kidney disease and is the most common form of renal replacement therapy.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 18 May 2017, along with an unannounced visit to the service on 22 May 2017.

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?

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

We regulate dialysis 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:

  • Staff understood and fulfilled their responsibilities to raise concerns and report incidents and near misses. Lessons from incidents were learned and communicated throughout the team.
  • Performance showed a consistently good track record in safety, patient outcomes and access to treatment.
  • Staffing levels were of an appropriate number for the unit and staff were suitably skilled, including senior managers.
  • Patient’s care and treatment was planned and delivered and clinical outcomes monitored in line with evidence-based guidance, standards, best practice and legislation. This included the management of a patient’s pain, nutrition and hydration needs and individual physical health needs.
  • There was effective multidisciplinary working. Staff worked well together and there was high morale and staff satisfaction.
  • Staff were committed to ‘doing the best’ for their patients and passionate about delivering high quality care, a culture of putting the patient first was evident throughout the unit.
  • Feedback from patients was consistently positive about the way staff treated them. The unit had received no complaints in the past year.

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

  • Staff did not fully follow the provider medicine management policy for the positive identification of patients when they were administering medicines.
  • On-going competency-based assessments to ensure staff were up to date with using, for example, dialysis machines was undertaken informally but not documented.
  • A Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) report was not produced at this location.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve.

Heidi Smoult

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals