Adsum Healthcare Limited

Updated 17 October 2019

Adsum Healthcare Limited is based in Old Amersham, Buckinghamshire and provides a range of pre-operative assessment and post-operative care for surgical procedures in vascular surgery. The service also provides consultations, examinations and treatments for other vascular diseases and disorders. This includes micro-sclerotherapy (for small varicose veins) and ultrasound guided foam sclerotherapy (for large varicose veins).

Sclerotherapy is a medical procedure used to eliminate varicose veins and spider veins. Sclerotherapy involves an injection of a solution (generally a salt solution) directly into the vein.

In addition to the vascular procedures, Adsum Healthcare Limited also provide a variety of aesthetic cosmetic services, for example, radio frequency skin tightening for reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. These cosmetic services are exempt by law from Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulation. Therefore, we were only able to inspect the vascular service and not the aesthetic cosmetic services.

All services are provided from:

• Adsum Aesthetics, The Broadway, Old Amersham, Buckinghamshire HP7 0HP.

The service website is:

• www.adsumaesthetics.co.uk

The vascular surgeon (with practising privileges) is also the owner of Adsum Healthcare Limited and is supported by two vascular nurses in the provision of all vascular procedures. A practice manager and receptionist undertake the day to day management and running of the service.

The service is open between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday. When necessary, the service could stay open longer to accommodate patients’ needs. Out of regular clinic hours, an emergency telephone line and emergency enquiry email address was available to all patients. The telephone line was covered by the vascular surgeon. The emergency number was published on the website and was included in all the clinic’s post-procedure information leaflets.

Updated 17 October 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

The previous inspection was in October 2017.

The inspection report for the previous inspection can be found by selecting the ‘all services’ link for Adsum Healthcare Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Since the October 2017 inspection, our inspection methodology has changed and therefore this is a rated inspection and 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 Adsum Healthcare Limited in Amersham, Buckinghamshire on 13 September 2019. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Adsum Healthcare Limited provides a range of pre-operative assessment and post-operative care for surgical procedures in vascular surgery and is registered with Care Quality Commission (CQC) under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of some, but not all, of the services it provides. There are some exemptions from regulation by CQC which relate to particular types of regulated activities and services and these are set out in and of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

Some of the services available at Adsum Healthcare Limited, for example cosmetic treatments, including radio frequency skin tightening for reduction in the appearance of wrinkles are exempt by law from CQC regulation. Therefore, we were only able to inspect the aspects related to consultations, examinations and treatments for vascular diseases and disorders. This included micro-sclerotherapy (for small varicose veins) and ultrasound guided foam sclerotherapy (for large varicose veins) as part of this inspection.

The practice manager is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the CQC 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.

As part of our inspection we asked for CQC comment cards to be completed by patients prior to our inspection, we received nine completed comment cards which were all positive about the standard of care they received. The service was described as first-rate and professional, whilst staff were described as attentive, helpful and caring. Feedback also stated hey felt all the staff took an interest in them as a person and overall impression was one of wanting to help patients.

Our key findings were:

• The regulated vascular services within Adsum Healthcare Limited were providing safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

• The service had clear systems to keep people safe and safeguarded from abuse. The service used recognised tools to identify and respond to changing risks to patients including deteriorating health and well-being, post treatment complications and medical emergencies.

• Staff assessed patients’ needs and delivered care in line with current evidence-based guidance.

• Patients received clear explanations about their proposed treatment, costs, benefits and risks and were involved in making decisions about their care.

• All feedback from patients told us they had very positive experiences of the vascular clinic and felt they were treated with respect, compassion and dignity.

• Services were tailored to meet the needs of individual patients. Every patient attending the service had their own particular pattern of venous disease which meant no two procedures were the same.

• There was an overarching vision and strategy with evidence of good local leadership within the service.

• There were a variety of regular reviews in place to monitor the performance of the service. These included random reviews for consultations and treatments, for example reviews on consent and surgical site infections.

The area where the provider should make improvements is:

• Continue to follow the new process to monitor the usage and contents of the first aid kit.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care