We carried out a routine inspection at Accuvision on 19 December 2013. We looked at how people were involved and treated at each stage of their care. We looked at how the service recruited staff and how the service managed complaints. We conducted telephone interviews with people who used the service.

Accuvision provides a wide range of specialist eye laser corrective treatments including long-sight, short-sight, astigmatism, reading vision and cataracts. All treatments were for privately funded patients only.

We saw that the service provided people with appropriate information about their care and treatment. Feedback from people who had used the service confirmed that they were treated with dignity and respect.

We spoke with four people who used the service. All four people stated they were very happy with their care and treatment, one stated, ”Excellent care and treatment, I’m delighted”.

We spoke with three staff members and reviewed how staff were recruited and trained and saw the service had a robust recruitment and training programme in place.

We looked at the complaints process and how complaints and concerns were managed. We saw there was a clear complaints procedure for staff to follow. However, the service did not routinely record or respond to comments and concerns raised by people who used the service.

On the day of our visit there were no laser procedures in progress but there were follow-up appointments for people who had treatment the day before and consultation appointments for those considering treatment.

At our request the optometrist gave a CQC leaflet to all patients attending and two were able to talk to us. We were also able to view the results from the annual patient appraisal, examine a file of patient questionnaires and comments for 2012 and look at policy and procedure files.

We were told that staff were “confidence inspiring” and “I was delighted with the whole experience”.

There was a general view that the service was not sales driven and that people were given enough information to make choices about their treatment. Comments also suggested that the staff were very proficient and that people were happy with the service they received and would recommend it to others.

Accuvision Ltd was established in London, UK in December 2001. The provider opened the Solihull clinic in May 2005.

Accuvision Laser Eye Clinic in Solihull is one of three clinics nationwide run by an independent healthcare provider. It primarily offers corneal laser vision correction surgery and treatments for short-sightedness (myopia), long-sightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism (a refractive error), keratoconus treatment (a progressive eye disease), age related long-sightedness (presbyopia) and access to non-laser cataract surgery through another provider.

We inspected Accuvision Solihull as part of our comprehensive programme, using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 31 October 2017 along with an unannounced visit to the clinic on 19 November 2017.

The Solihull clinic operates on an appointment basis depending on patients’ needs.

The provider mainly manages administrative work at the London clinic and the whole team of 20 staff work between all three of the clinic locations as needed.

On entry to the clinic ground floor there is a waiting room with refreshments available to patients, the clinic office, toilets, a consulting room and a diagnostic room, a preparation room and a laser treatment room.

The first floor consists of a combined waiting and recovery area, three consulting rooms, a cleaner’s room, store room and three toilets.

The second floor is restricted to staff access only and is primarily an administration and storage area with one staff toilet.

The clinic has parking available for patients and the ground floor is accessible to wheelchair users.

We inspected laser eye surgery.

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.

Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Services we do not rate

We regulate refractive eye surgery but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them when they are provided as a single specialty service. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.