- Independent hospital
Meridian House
All Inspections
18 and 19 December 2023
During a routine inspection
We rated this service as inadequate because early in the inspection process we found numerous significant concerns and issued a Section 31 Letter of Intent and a further Notice of Decision to suspend the service was issued. These notices were in relation to the safe care and treatment of patients and the management and oversight of the service. Ratings limiters were therefore considered and applied.
Our rating of this location went down. We rated it as inadequate because:
- The service did not always provide safe care. Staff did not always receive mandatory training and there was insufficient attention to safeguarding. The service did not always control infection risk well. Staff did not always assess, monitor or manage risks to people who use the service. Equipment was not always checked to ensure it was safe to use and medication was not managed safely. The service did not always recognise incidents and there was little evidence of learning following incidents.
- The service was not always well-led. Leaders did not always have the capacity to lead effectively. Risk was not always managed and oversight in relation to governance processes was not always robust. Incidents were not always investigated. Policies were not always reviewed and actions plans in relation to poor audit outcomes were not always considered or developed. The service did not always operate effective procedures to evidence that all staff employed were fit and proper persons. The service did not always engage well with patients and the community.
However:
- Post inspection, the provider demonstrated a willingness to improve.
28 June 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Meridian House is a private outpatient doctors’ consultation and treatment centre, seeing patients via referral or self-referral on a private basis and via health insurance. The hospital provides a range of elective surgery treatments for NHS and other funded (insured and self-pay) adults in a range of surgery specialties.
At the time of the inspection, the service had a registered manager in post. The service comprised of 5 clinic rooms, a patient waiting area, 2 dedicated endoscopy rooms, an endoscopy preparation room and wait area. In addition, there was a surgical pre-assessment clinic, 2 operating theatres, 2 consent rooms, a 6 bedded dedicated recovery area and 10 individual en-suite room for overnight stays.
Following this inspection, we wrote to the registered manager to notify them of the serious concerns identified during the inspection. We invited them to send us an action plan, setting out how either they had already addressed each of the concerns identified above, or how they intend to address them immediately. We received a response in the form of an action plan.
18th May 2022
During a routine inspection
We rated it as good because:
- The patient environments were safe, clean and well maintained. Consideration had been given to ensure the environment was accessible for those who may require reasonable adjustments.
- The service always had enough staff. Managers ensured that these staff received training, and appraisal. The staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team.
- Patient records were complete, contemporaneous and included information in relation to discharge planning.
- Staff planned patient discharge well and liaised with services that would provide aftercare. Patients lengths of stay were short.
- Staff engaged in both clinical and non-clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
- Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood their individual needs. They involved patients and families and carers in care decisions.
- The service was well led, and the governance processes ensured that procedures ran smoothly.
However:
- There were gaps within staff training records in relation to safeguarding adults and children.
- Actions identified as a result of audits of the resuscitation trolley within theatres had not been completed, resulting in out of date medication remaining in situ.
- The service had not established access to translation and singing services.
The main service provided by this hospital was surgery. Where our findings on surgery– for example, management arrangements – also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the surgery service.