Care and Quality Commission awards CHEC highest possible rating 

The Care and Quality Commission (CQC) has recognised a Northampton-based eye hospital as ‘Outstanding’ – the highest possible rating. Based in Sol Central, CHEC is a community-based provider of ophthalmology services to people living in Northampton and the surrounding areas, working in partnership with the NHS to reduce waiting times by giving patients increased choice.

Following a thorough evaluation process, CHEC was found to achieve exceptional performance across five main areas: safety, effectiveness, care, responsiveness, and leadership.

One of the key areas which contributed to the ‘Outstanding’ award was CHEC’s focus on patient accessibility. Recognising that travelling for appointments can often be stressful, especially for those with visual impairments, CHEC introduced a range of patient-focused initiatives. These include a free Home to Hospital™ pick up service and collaboration with a local parking provider that not only gives two hours’ free parking for appointments, patients can also record their registration in the hospital rather than at the car park.

Amisha Majithia, Hospital Manager, explains: “We put the patient front and centre of every decision we make about our service provision and operations. While the objective was to create an environment that delivered the very best quality and care for the patients, to be recognised as ‘Outstanding’ by CQC is a brilliant achievement for our team.” 

CHEC first opened its doors to patients in Northampton early April 2022. Since then, the community provider of ophthalmology services has seen almost 7,000 patients and carried out over 1,000 cataract surgeries.

“Based on our current performance, we can treat patients in an average of 4.2 weeks, which is much quicker than other pathways for the same treatments,” continues Amisha. “Over the past year we’ve also expanded our services in line with community needs, so it’s more convenient than ever to access ophthalmology diagnostics and treatments.”