16th and 18th November 2021
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Ashford Hospital is in Surrey and is situated to the West of London and close to Heathrow Airport.
The hospital provides a wide range of medical and mainly day surgical services, outpatients services, ophthalmology, inpatient rehabilitation, and includes the Ashford Walk-in Centre (run by a different provider). The majority of planned care, like day surgery is provided at Ashford Hospital.
Services include:
- Day-case surgery
- Elective Surgery
- Ophthalmology
- Outpatients (including pediatrics) and diagnostics; X ray, ultrasound, and MRI scans
- Inpatient Rehabilitation
We carried out this unannounced focused inspection of surgery because we received information of concern about the surgery service across the hospital from staff whistleblowing to the CQC.
We inspected surgery and focused on the safety and well led key questions as the information we received related to these key questions.
We rated surgery as good in both key questions.
Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated the core of service of surgery as good because:
- The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe. Staff 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 collected safety information and used it to improve the service.
- Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work.
- The majority of 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 the community to plan and manage services and all staff were committed to improving services continually.
However:
- A minority of staff did not feel respected, supported and valued.
- A minority of staff were not bare below the elbows in clinical areas.
- Staff told us that divisional leaders were visible. However, staff perceived that the trust’s executive team were not visible.
- Not all staff were up to date with mandatory training including safeguarding training.
How we carried out the inspection
We spoke to over 40 members of staff including; doctors in training, consultants, nurses, health care assistants, a student nurse, and allied health professionals. We reviewed a variety of data, meeting minutes and nine patient records.
You can find further information about how we carry out our inspections on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection.