Optical Express - Exeter Clinic, New North Road, Exeter.Optical Express - Exeter Clinic in New North Road, Exeter is a Clinic specialising in the provision of services relating to caring for adults over 65 yrs, caring for adults under 65 yrs, diagnostic and screening procedures, sensory impairments, surgical procedures and treatment of disease, disorder or injury. The last inspection date here was 1st February 2018 Contact Details:
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1st January 1970 - During a routine inspection
![]() Optical Express – Exeter Clinic provided laser eye surgery for adults who pay privately for their care and treatment. No NHS funded work was completed at this clinic.Optical Express Exeter (hereafter known as ‘the clinic’) was operated by Optical Express Limited (hereafter known as ‘Optical Express’). The regulated activities at this location were diagnostic and screening procedures; and treatment of disease, disorder or injury and surgical procedures.
The clinic was situated on the first floor of a multi-occupied office building in Exeter city centre. The entrance to the clinic was on the first floor of this shared building. The first floor was accessed by stairs or a lift. At the time of our inspection, the service provided refractive eye surgery for day case adult patients. Part of the practice provided a general optometry service which falls outside the scope of registration.There were no inpatient facilities.
All surgery was carried out using topical anaesthesia. Refractive eye surgery was undertaken on approximately one day per month. On the day of surgery the patients were treated by a regional surgery team who moved between all locations within the South West dependent on demand at the various locations. This team consisted of the registered manager who was based in Exeter, plus staff who were based in other clinics but covered the Exeter clinic on surgery days. A separate team of optometrists and patient advisors in the general optometry service saw surgery patients prior to surgery. This team completed the patient’s initial measurements and topography scans. Topography scanning is a non-invasive medical imaging technique for mapping the surface curvature of the cornea, the outer structure of the eye. Optometrists completed a consultation regarding suitability for surgery that included a discussion of fees terms and conditions. This same team saw patients after their surgery for follow up aftercare appointments. The surgical team and the optometry team worked under separate line management and clinical governance structures.
Patients referred themselves to the clinic for initial consultation. Patients were accepted for surgery if they met admissions criteria and if the optometrist and surgeon agreed that surgery was a viable treatment option.
During August 2016 to July 2017, there were a total of 1950 patient activities including 752 pre-surgery consultations, 268 eye treatments/surgical procedures and 930 aftercare appointments. We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 20 and 21 September 2017 along with an unannounced visit to the clinic on 28 September 2017.
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? Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
We regulate refractive eye surgery services, but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.
We found the following areas of good practice:
We found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:
Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and that it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve. We also issued the provider with two requirement notice(s) that affected the refractive eye service. Details are at the end of the report.
Amanda Stanford
Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals
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