Panacea

Panacea is a private medical centre and a centre for eye care based in Worthing West Sussex. It opened on January 2015 and is situated in an old church. During this inspection we only inspected the eye care service. Rooms within the centre are rented out but activity undertaken is not within the scope of registration with the CQC. This was the first time the service had been inspected.

Panacea Medical Centre is owned by Stereopsis Limited. The centre is set over two-floors and facilities include two operating theatres, clinic rooms and a minor procedure room.

Services provided include, cataract surgery, glaucoma treatment, retinal and eyelid surgery as day case under either topical anaesthetic eye drops or local anaesthetic injection. Ophthalmic (eye) surgery is performed by two consultant ophthalmic surgeons on Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons.

The service provides care and treatment for adults only.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We have reported our inspection findings in the core service of surgery. We carried out an announced inspection on 12 November 2019.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

There were no special reviews or investigations of the service ongoing by the CQC at any time during the 12 months before this inspection.

Services we rate

This was the first inspection of the service. We rated the centre as Good overall. This was because:

The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff had training in key skills, understood how to protect patients from abuse, and managed safety well. The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to patients, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.

Staff provided good care and treatment. The service leader monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent. Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.

Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients.

The service planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback. People could access the service when they needed it and did not have to wait too long for treatment.

Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities. The service engaged well with patients and all staff were committed to improving services continually.

The design, maintenance and use of facilities, premises and equipment kept people safe. Staff managed clinical waste well.

The service collected reliable data and analysed it. The information systems were integrated and secure.

However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needed to improve:

One staff’s file did not include two written references in line with the provider’s policy.

The resuscitation trolleys contained equipment and medicines that staff were not trained to use.

The provider’s statement of purpose did not accurately reflect the current activity undertaken.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that it should make improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. Details are at the end of the report.

Name of signatory

Nigel Acheson

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (London and South)