We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection on 14 May 2018 to ask the service the following key questions; Are services safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

Our findings were:

Are services safe?

We found that this service was providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services effective?

We found that this service was providing effective care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services caring?

We found that this service was providing caring services in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services responsive?

We found that this service was providing responsive care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

Are services well-led?

We found that this service was providing well-led care in accordance with the relevant regulations.

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. 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.

The service delivers community ear, nose and throat (ENT) services to NHS patients within Brighton and Hove, Lewes and High Weald and community vasectomy services to patients within Brighton and Hove. These services are provided under NHS contracts.

There are two registered managers who are both GPs and shareholders of the company. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 and spoke to patients on the day of inspection. We received feedback about the service from 78 people, all were positive about the service, although two also contained negative comments about staff attitude. Patients told us that they were treated professionally in a caring manner.

Our key findings were:

• The service routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care they provided. They ensured that care and treatment was delivered according to evidence- based guidelines.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• There was a strong focus on continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organisation.
• The service had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the service learned from them and improved their processes.

There were areas where the provider could make improvements and should

• Review and improve how patient safety alerts are recorded.
• Review and improve recording of staff immunisation status.
• Review and improve the recording of decisions where actions identified in risk assessments are postponed.
• Review the frequency that clinical governance information is disseminated to staff, including contract staff.