Archived: Braintree Community Hospital

Updated 16 April 2015

Braintree Community Hospital is a community hospital which is operated by Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. The trust provides outpatient and surgery services. The inpatient area is run by a community trust, and the endoscopy services are run separately.

Updated 16 April 2015

Braintree Community Hospital is part of the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust (MEHT). Braintree Community Hospital was taken over by Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust in August 2014. The trust provides surgical and outpatient services at Braintree Community Hospital, with endoscopy services and the inpatient ward being run by alternative providers.

We carried out this inspection as part of our commitment to inspect all NHS trusts in England. Our rationale for choosing this service was based upon its recent change over to Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. This was a scheduled and announced inspection, which took place on 27 November 2014.

Overall, we have found that the ratings and provision of care in each core service inspected at Braintree Community Hospital was good. The care provided to people in surgery and outpatients was good, services were effective, the staff were caring, and locally within Braintree, the services were well led. Overall, we have rated Braintree Community Hospital as a good service.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The staff working at Braintree Community Hospital were still transitioning into new working regimes under Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. This meant that there were changes to management, procedures, paperwork and booking systems, which were taking some time to adjust to.
• It was evident that throughout the hospital, the staff were caring, dedicated and passionate.
• The League of Friends volunteer group was a feature of the service, with support for the volunteers voiced in each department we visited.
• Patients, visitors and relatives were highly complementary about the catering service in the café area, with the quality of the food being praised.
• The hospital environment was modern and visibly clean throughout.
• There was ample parking on site, which was free for patients, which was positive.
• Staffing levels were sufficient, though there were notable shortages of nursing staff, on occasions, within outpatients and surgery. Recruitment to those vacant posts was underway.

However, there were also areas of poor practice where the trust needs to make improvements.

The trust should:

• Ensure that there are a sufficient number of nursing staff recruited and in post to provide services.
• Ensure that lessons are learned from incidents, serious incidents and complaints.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 16 April 2015

Patients were treated with dignity and respect by caring and motivated staff. Patients spoke positively about staff, and felt well informed about their care and the procedures being undertaken. The services we inspected were very clean, and the environment was well maintained. There was a clear process for reporting and investigating incidents. Diagnostic imaging services had an excellent feedback mechanism to staff, to keep them informed of incidents submitted and the outcomes of investigations, including lessons to be learnt. Good communication was evident across the departments on other sites within the trust.

There was a shortage of key staff, in particular qualified nursing staff for outpatients. There was a strong team spirit and good multidisciplinary working across all services. The hospital was adhering to recognised best practice, including nationally-recognised guidance from NICE and Royal College guidelines. Staff aimed to deal with complaints efficiently, and they told us that they would always try and deal with a complaint immediately, where possible. There was good local leadership and a positive culture within the services. Feedback from patients was very positive.

Updated 16 April 2015

Services were provided in a very clean and hygienic environment, in line with recognised guidance, which helped protect patients from the risk of infection, including hospital-acquired infections. Overall services were safe; however there was a lack of learning from incidents which occurred across the trust, with no system in place to facilitate learning from incidents and complaints which needed improving. We saw staff who were caring; the patients we spoke with complimented staff on their caring approach and professionalism.

We saw that appropriate equipment checks and maintenance were carried out. Most of the staff we spoke with felt supported by their managers. Staff training and appraisals were carried out to ensure that staff were competent and had knowledge of best practice to effectively care for and treat patients. However, the trust had taken over part of the building in April 2014; many of the staff had still not had their final terms and conditions, including salary banding completed.