Harley Street Eye Clinic

Updated 24 June 2019

Harley Street Eye Clinic, located at 86 Harley Street, London W1G 7HP, was founded in July 2017. The service is located within rented premises, occupied by the medical providers, and has access to three consultation rooms and two administrative offices on the first and second floors. There is a receptionist on the ground floor, a waiting room, accessible toilets and a patient lift.

The service is a consultant-led provider of ophthalmic services. No surgical procedures are undertaken at the location. Patients requiring ophthalmic surgery are seen at an independent private hospital. At this location, patients are seen for ophthalmic assessments and pre and post-operation consultations, for example cataract surgery. Patients can self-refer or be referred by other health professionals.

The day-to-day running of the service is provided by a business and a clinic manager. The service is overseen by lead consultant and owner of the service. The provider also employs a patient co-ordinator. There are two consultants who work under practising privileges (the granting of practising privileges is a well-established process within independent healthcare whereby a medical practitioner is granted permission to work in an independent hospital or clinic, in independent private practice, or within the provision of community services). We saw that all consultants hold NHS substantive positions.

The service offers pre-bookable face-to-face appointments to both adults and children. Patients can access appointments Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm. The provider told us that between April 2018 and April 2019 they have seen approximately 345 patients.

Pre-inspection information was gathered and reviewed before the inspection. On the day of the inspection we spoke with the lead consultant and business and clinic manager. We also reviewed a wide range of documentary evidence including policies, written protocols and guidelines, recruitment and training records, significant events, patient survey results and complaints.

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 24 June 2019

The service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

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 the Harley Street Eye Clinic on 9 May 2019 as part of our inspection programme. The provider had not been previously inspected.

Harley Street Eye Clinic, located at 86 Harley Street, London W1G 7HP, is a consultant-led provider of ophthalmic services.

The consultant lead is the registered manager. 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.

The provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the regulated activities of Treatment of Disease Disorder or Injury, Diagnostic & Screening Procedures and Surgical Procedures.

We were unable to speak with any patients during the inspection. However, as part of our inspection process, we asked for CQC comments cards to be completed by patients during the two weeks prior to our inspection. Four comments cards were completed, all of which are positive about the service experienced. Patients said that the service offers an excellent and professional service and staff are friendly, considerate and caring.

Our key findings were:

• There were systems in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults from abuse and staff we spoke with knew how to identify and report safeguarding concerns. All staff had been trained to a level appropriate to their role.
• The service had systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.
• The service carried out staff checks on recruitment, including checks of professional registration where relevant.
• Clinical staff we spoke with were aware of current evidence-based guidance and they had the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out their roles.
• There was evidence of quality improvement, including clinical audit.
• Consent procedures were in place and these were in line with legal requirements.
• Staff we spoke with were aware of their responsibility to respect people’s diversity and human rights.
• Systems were in place to protect personal information about patients. The service was registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
• Patients were able to access care and treatment from the clinic within an appropriate timescale for their needs.
• Information about services and how to complain was available.
• The service had proactively gathered feedback from patients.
• Governance arrangements were in place. There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care