England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as Good overall following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
CQC inspectors visited three core services (outpatients, surgery and medicine) at the trust between 22 and 24 January 2018.
The trust had made a number of improvements since its last inspection in 2015, when it was rated as Requires Improvement overall. It is now rated as being Good in all key areas for being safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The culture of the trust had changed since CQC’s inspection in 2015 and is evolving into a more open and inclusive culture.
The acting CEO has made a significant impact on the culture of the organisation. Staff reported he was visible, approachable and listened to their concerns. This was notably different to the previous leadership style and staff now felt engaged and valued.
The executive team were open and honest about the challenges they were facing, and appeared to work well together and were able to articulate how they wished to improve the service in the future.
Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“On our return to The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust we found a number of significant improvements had been made since our previous inspection and the trust is now rated as Good overall.
“Staff should be proud of the considerable progress made at the trust since the 2015 inspection. There was evidence of positive changes to organisational culture, quality improvement initiatives and innovative research projects.
“During our inspection we noted a number of areas of outstanding practice. The trust had a proactive research and development department which meant the trust was engaged in many different research projects. Inspectors noted that the trust used beneficial findings to improve patient outcomes and to offer less invasive procedures, in particular with patients with bone tumours and soft tissue sarcomas.
“Multidisciplinary working was well embedded in the hospital, to ensure patients received all care interventions in a timely fashion. Referral to treatment times for being seen within two weeks for an urgent GP referral was also above the national target.
“Since the last inspection, several governance improvements had taken place. For example, we saw the incorporation of a children's board, round table reviews following serious incidents and training to improve root cause analysis investigations.
“However there were several areas where the trust must make further improvements. For example, staff expressed frustration with various IT systems and processes which impacted negatively upon both staff and patients.
“The trust also needs to review its policies and procedures for caring for patients with mental ill-health including those detained under the Mental Health Act.
“We have reported all our findings back to the trust and the trust board knows what it must do to bring about further improvement. We will continue to monitor progress at the trust and this will include further inspections.”
Full details of CQC’s inspection, its ratings for the trust, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published on our website.
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Staff should be proud of the considerable progress made at the trust since the 2015 inspection
Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals