eXroid (HQ)

This service is rated as Outstanding overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Outstanding

Are services caring? – Outstanding

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Outstanding

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at eXroid (HQ) as part of our inspection programme. This was the provider’s first inspection of the service since it registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2020.

eXroid (HQ) provides electrotherapy for the treatment of haemorrhoids (piles) by colorectal specialist consultants in the UK, in clinics across the country.

The service is registered with CQC to provide the following regulated activities: Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

The Chairman and Medical Director 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.

Our key findings were:

• Policies and procedures were comprehensive, up to date and relevant to the service.
• All staff had the appropriate level of training for safeguarding adults relevant to their role and staff training in other required subjects was up to date.
• Consent was recorded appropriately for each contact with the patient.
• Patient feedback was positive about their care experience.
• The service was supportive of patients’ needs and patients were able to access the service in a timely manner.
• There was clear leadership and leaders had the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality, sustainable care.
• The provider had effective processes for planning of the future leadership and workforce of the service.
• Governance arrangements were implemented effectively.
• The provider had a culture which drove high quality sustainable care. There were high levels of satisfaction across all staff.
• There were clear responsibilities, roles and systems of accountability to support good governance and management.
• There were consistently high levels of constructive engagement with staff and people who use services.
• There were systems and processes for learning, continuous improvement and innovation.

We saw the following outstanding practice:

• The provider had developed an accredited device which used electrotherapy technology to shrink internal haemorrhoids. They had undertaken over 4000 haemorrhoid treatments in the UK and were gaining valuable insight and understanding in the progression and changes in this disease. They undertook analysis of these treatments regularly, to understand the occurrence and prevalence.They aimed to publish findings so that both sufferers and medical professionals could access more data in this area, in order to improve services and advice currently available.

• The provider had developed a patient assessment tool to monitor treatment progress, which was the subject of a poster presentation at The European Society of Coloproctology. The provider had developed this into a leaflet which patients were able to share with their GP or other specialist to update them on treatment progress and as an education tool.

Dr Sean O*Kelly
Interim Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care