SURGERY and children’s services at Swindon’s largest private hospital require improvement, health inspectors have said.

The Care Quality Commission inspected the BMI Ridgeway hospital after concerns were raised by staff and patients over the safety and leadership of certain departments.

Inspectors warned of overflowing bins and unreported safety incidents.

Now, they have demanded improvements of the Wroughton-based hospital, where a hip replacement can cost up to £13,600.

Three requirement  notices have been issued to bosses at the Ridgeway, requiring that sufficient numbers of qualified staff are employed in the operating theatre recovery suite, safety monitoring systems are in place and carpets are removed from clinical areas and patient bedrooms.

BMI, which manages the hospital, says it has been working with the CQC on improvements following the March inspection. A spokesman said: “We are determined to address each and every issue raised. We value the CQC’s involvement as we work through our action plan and are confident that many of the areas that they highlighted six months ago have either been completed or are at advanced stages of completion.”

But the revelations in the CQC report may come as a shock to some. The watchdog only probed safety and leadership concerns in the hospital’s surgery, children’s and young persons services, also asking whether the medical teams at The Ridgeway were well-led. Overall, the hospital is rated as requires improvement.

CQC concerns

In a 35-page report, the CQC warned of overflowing bins in the “small, crammed and less than ideal” pharmacy. One surgeon was seen walking into the canteen in the outfit he had been wearing in the operating theatre, finish his meal, remove his face mask and throw it in the bin in a breach of hospital rules. Around a third of staff had not completed required child life support training.

A service agreement with the local NHS trust, understood to be Great Western Hospital, that concerned how rapidly-deteriorating patients should be dealt with in emergency cases had been drafted but not signed. Inspectors wrote: “If a patient deteriorated and required emergency transfer to the local NHS trust staff would call the local emergency ambulance via 999.”

A whistle-blower also told the CQC 30 operating theatre staff were unable to report safety incidents after a computer glitch. This was being fixed when inspectors visited, but the CQC concluded the problems would have had an impact on the number incidents reported. Between April 2017 and March 2018, 339 incidents were logged.

Concerns were also raised about the on-call doctor arrangements for chemotherapy services.

Amanda Stanford, deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said: “Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with the regulations and it should make other improvements, even though a regulation had not been breached, to help the service improve.”

What does The Ridgeway say?

A spokesman for BMI The Ridgeway Hospital said: “Patient care and safety remains our priority, and we have been working constructively with the CQC to address areas they highlighted. In the six months since their inspection visit, we have recruited a permanent manager to replace the short-term locum support in pharmacy, we have appointed a named oncology lead and we have negotiated a service level agreement with The Great Western Hospital for the transfer of patients if needed.

“We are determined to address each and every issue raised. We value the CQC’s involvement as we work through our action plan and are confident that many of the areas that they highlighted six months ago have either been completed or are at advanced stages of completion.

“In regards to cancer services, we ensure we set aside time specifically to seek feedback from patients in order to develop services that meet their needs and have convened an expert group of different specialists to oversee all patient cases and ensure high levels of care.

“While the CQC identified areas for improvement, it’s also important to note that we are rated outstanding in the Caring inspection criteria and good in the Effective and Responsive domains.”