Bristol Urology Associates

Updated 15 February 2023

Bristol Urology Associates is located in Bristol at:

85 Alma Road

Bristol

BS8 5DP

The service is registered with CQC to provide the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures, Surgical procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The service is provided for children 13 to 18 years old, younger adults and older people. Bristol Urology Associates offers consultations, diagnostic tests and some minor interventions on-site. Major Surgical procedures are carried out off-site in agreement with other registered hospitals in the local area. The service treats up to 200 patients a month.

The service is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm.

How we inspected this service

This inspection was carried out in a way which enabled us to spend a minimum amount of time on site. This was with consent from the provider and in line with all data protection and information governance requirements.

This included:

• Requesting a provider information return (PIR) from the service before the site visit.
• Conducting staff interviews using video conferencing.
• Reviewing patient records to identify issues and clarify actions taken by the provider.
• A short site visit.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?
• Is it effective?
• Is it caring?
• Is it responsive to people’s needs?
• Is it well-led?

These questions therefore formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 15 February 2023

This service is rated as Good overall. This is the services first inspection since the implementation of the Health and Social Care Action 2014 regulations. The service received an inspection in 2014 under the previous format and deemed to meet the standards of which it was inspected against.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Bristol Urology Associates. We inspected this service as part of our inspection programme.

Bristol Urology Associates provides a comprehensive range of private urology services. They offer specialist assessment and treatment for general urological conditions including cancer and minor investigations, for example, cystoscopy (examination of the bladder and urethra using a cystoscope, tube-like instrument with a lens or a light for viewing), trans-rectal ultrasound, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test (a blood test used to screen for prostate cancer) and urinary flow measurement (a diagnostic test assessing how well the urinary track functions).

There was no registered manager in place at the time of the inspection, however, the provider was in the process of registering one of the consultants for this role. 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.

Our key findings were:

• We could not be assured that the service provided care and treatment in a way that kept people safe and protected them from avoidable harm at all times.
• Patients received effective care and treatment that met their needs.
• Staff dealt with patients with kindness and respect and involved them in decision about their care.
• Patients could access care and treatment in in a timely way.
• The way the service was led and managed promoted the delivery of high-quality, person-centred care.

However we found no breaches of regulations the areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Continue to ensure staff training is completed in line with the national guidelines.
• Embed processes to assess risks to health and safety for staff and service users.
• Create a fire risk assessment in accordance with the service’s fire policy.
• Create a risk assessment for the decision to not store oxygen on the premises.

Dr Sean O’Kelly BSc MB ChB MSc DCH FRCA

Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services