The Care Quality Commission
  • Hospital
  • Independent hospital

Somerset Surgical Services

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Grange Road, Uphill, Weston Super Mare, Somerset, BS23 4TQ (01934) 881105

Provided and run by:
Somerset Surgical Services Ltd

All Inspections

12 and 13 July and 9 December 2016

During a routine inspection

Somerset Surgical Services is an independent provider of health services located at Weston General Hospital, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. It engages consultant surgeons and anaesthetists on a self employed basis, to carry out elective (that is non-emergency) surgery for NHS patients which are otherwise not provided at Weston General Hospital. To provide this service, Somerset Surgical Services has an agreement with Weston Area Health NHS Trust to use their facilities and nursing staff at Weston General Hospital.

We carried out an announced inspection visit to this service on 12 and 13 July and 8 of December 2016. This was part of our programme of inspection of independent health providers. Overall, we rated this service as good.

Are services safe

  • Incidents involving patients of Somerset Surgical Services were reported and dealt with effectively. There was a good culture of reviewing incidents at a senior level.
  • Somerset Surgical Services were provided with access to the audit data of Weston General Hospital to determine that infection control practices, medicines’ management, and equipment and facilities were safe.
  • Staff were knowledgeable about the duty of candour legislation, and their responsibilities around this.
  • Staff were up-to-date with their mandatory training.
  • Staff were knowledgeable about safeguarding and their responsibilities to vulnerable people.

Are services effective

  • Relevant and current evidence-based guidance, standards and legislation were identified and used to develop how services, care and treatment were delivered.
  • Feedback from patients was positive and all recommended the service.

Are services caring

  • We received positive feedback about staff and services from all of the patients we spoke with. We heard patients were treated with respect and shown kindness by nursing staff and consultants when they visited outpatient clinics.
  • Patients told us the administrative staff working for Somerset Surgical Services were friendly, patient and helpful.

Are services responsive

  • Somerset Surgical Services worked in collaboration with local clinical commissioning groups and Weston Area Health NHS Trust to develop services to meet local people’s needs.
  • The service focused its developments on specialty areas that were not delivered by Weston Area Health NHS Trust. These services were delivered to enable local people to have their treatment at Weston rather than need to travel out of the area.
  • People had timely access to initial assessment and diagnosis. Somerset Surgical Services’ waiting times for referral to treatment (RTT) were consistently below the NHS England target of 18 weeks.

Are services well-led

  • Somerset Surgical Services provided safe care and treatment. It gained the appropriate assurances that services delivered for their patients by Weston General Hospital (the NHS hospital that provided the facilities and nursing staff) were safe.
  • Somerset Surgical Services’ stated vision was “to provide first class patient care, quickly and safely as possible.” This had been successfully delivered by the clinical and the administration staff team, and through the management of the service.
  • The service, in conjunction with its two sister organisations located in other parts of the UK, had a vision and strategy to develop the services it provided. It planned to work in cooperation with NHS trusts and commissioning bodies to provide surgical procedures that were complimentary to those provided by the hospitals they were located in and working with.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals

14 February 2014

During a routine inspection

This was the first CQC inspection since the provider registered this service. At our inspection we spoke with six patients, two surgeons and an anaesthetist. We also reviewed four patient records and spoke with the provider's management and administrative staff.

All of the patients said they had signed consent to treatment forms. One patient said 'The doctors and nurses explained everything thoroughly and I was then asked to sign a consent form'. The provider had a Consent Policy in place which included guidance for treating patients who lacked the mental capacity to give informed consent.

Patients were complimentary about the care and treatment provided and the ease and speed of access. One patient said 'They were very quick and very good'. Another patient said 'They have been absolutely fantastic'.

The provider had a safeguarding policy in place and staff said they received training in the safeguarding of vulnerable adults. Staff knew how to report concerns to the relevant authorities.

The provider carried out appropriate checks before staff started work. These checks helped protect patients from the risk of unsafe practice or abuse.

The provider had an effective quality monitoring system. Returned patient satisfaction questionnaires showed very high satisfaction levels with the staff, facilities and ease of access to the service.