Pandemic hits clinic’s CQC ratings
A London private charitable hospital has adopted a range of safety quality measures in reaction to Care Quality Commission (CQC) criticism which saw its surgical services rating drop from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.
The London Clinic in Devonshire Place
An unannounced inspection of The London Clinic was made in June after the watchdog received ‘information of concern about the safety and quality of the service’.
According to the CQC, concerns arose after four never events between January and September last year involving surgical items left in the body after surgery and, in one case, wrong tooth extraction.
Following action, a hospital spokesperson told Independent Practitioner Today last month: ‘We are confident that our newly-integrated clinical governance framework has been given fresh impetus under new leadership and has delivered an enhanced safety culture.’
Inspectors rated the surgical service ‘inadequate’ for being well-led, ‘requires improvement’ for being safe, effective and responsive and ‘good’ for being caring.
The clinic’s overall rating is good and it is rated good for being safe, effective, caring and responsive, but requires improvement for being well-led.
Nicola Wise, CQC head of hospital inspection for London, said the provider told the watchdog that the Covid-19 pandemic had put additional pressures on the department because, in addition to the usual private work, they were also working with the NHS.
This meant that their theatre activity had significantly increased, resulting in higher volumes of more complex work and working with teams that were new to the organisation.
Thoroughly investigated
Mrs Wise added: ‘Although we understand the pressures that healthcare providers have faced and continue to face as a result of the pandemic, never events are precisely that – they should never occur.
‘If they do, it is important that they are thoroughly investigated to ensure that they do not happen again. In this case, each incident was fully investigated and learning was shared with all staff.
‘However, while leaders told us that they were committed to continuous learning, improvement and innovation, we did not see clear evidence of this during our inspection.’
The London Clinic added: ‘The report itself recognised a number of positives in the delivery of surgical care and patient outcomes, which is corroborated in a review by the Royal College of Surgeons, whom we had invited to independently assess our processes earlier this year following the incidents last year during the pandemic.
‘However, the CQC did identify shortcomings in our supporting governance and assurance framework; in particular, how we apply lessons learned. We accept this feedback.
‘We saw that these processes were disrupted at the height of the Covid pandemic, and it should be noted that a quality improvement programme was already underway at the time of the CQC visit and, three months on, these are now well advanced.
‘In this time, we have made several improvements, including enhanced quality huddles and a quality buddies system; commenced a new ‘good governance’ training programme; realigned the clinical governance responsibility and improved the complaints handling procedures.’