SpaMedica Wakefield was operated by SpaMedica Limited. Facilities include an operating theatre, and outpatient’s department.

We inspected using our comprehensive inspection methodology. The unannounced inspection (people did not know we were coming) took place on 23 January 2019.

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.

The main service provided was surgery.

Services we rate

This was the first time we had inspected this service. We rated it as Good overall.

We found good practice in relation to surgery:

Mandatory training compliance was positive. Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse. Infection prevention and control was managed well, the environment was clean and equipment was safely maintained. Staff completed risk assessments for each patient. The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. Staff kept records of patients’ care and treatment securely. The service followed best practice when prescribing, giving, recording and storing medicines. The service managed patient safety incidents well. Staff recognised incidents and reported them appropriately.

The service provided care and treatment based on evidence based national best practice guidance. Staff assessed and monitored patients regularly to see if they were in pain. Managers monitored the effectiveness of care and treatment. The service made sure staff were competent for their roles. Managers appraised staff’s work performance and held supervision meetings with them to provide support. Staff of different kinds worked together as a team to benefit patients. Staff understood how and when to assess whether a patient had the capacity to make decisions about their care. We saw staff seeking patients consent before providing care and treatment.

Staff cared for patients with compassion. Feedback from patients consistently confirmed that staff treated them well and with kindness. Staff provided emotional support to patients to minimise their distress. Staff involved patients and those close to them in decisions about their care and treatment.

The service planned and provided services in a way that met the needs of local people and took account of patients’ individual needs. People could access the service when they needed it. Waiting times from referral to treatment and arrangements to admit, treat and discharge patients were in line with good practice. The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learned lessons from the results, and shared these with all staff.

Managers at all levels in the service had the right skills and abilities to run a service providing high-quality sustainable care. The service had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and plans to turn it into action. The company promoted a positive culture that supported and valued staff. The service improved service quality and safeguarded high standards of care by creating an environment for excellent clinical care to flourish. The service had good systems to identify risks, plans to eliminate or reduce them, and cope with both the expected and unexpected. The service collected, analysed, managed and used information well to support all its activities, using secure electronic systems with security safeguards. The service engaged well with patients, staff, the public and local organisations to plan and manage services. The service was committed to improving services by learning from when things went well or wrong, promoting training, research and innovation.

Following this inspection, we told the provider that they should make two other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service to improve.

Ellen Armistead

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals North Region.