Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes his findings on the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

28 March 2014

England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has today published his first report on the quality of care provided by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

• Leicester Royal Infirmary – Overall rating: requires improvement
• Leicester General Hospital – Overall rating: requires improvement 
• Glenfield Hospital – Overall rating: good
• St Mary’s Birth Centre – Overall rating: good

The trust was one of the first to be inspected under radical changes introduced by the Care Quality Commission which are designed to provide a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than ever before

An inspection team which included doctors, nurses, hospital managers, trained members of the public, CQC inspectors and analysts, visited Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital, Glenfield Hospital and St Mary’s Birth Centre, announced, in January.

The team visited the hospitals as part of an announced inspection and examined the care provided in accident and emergency (A&E), medical care (including older people’s care), surgery, intensive/critical care, maternity, children’s care, end of life care and outpatients. 

Overall, the report concludes that the trust was providing services that were safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led; however, there were some areas for improvement.

Inspectors made a number of positive findings during their visit and, overwhelmingly, people told the team that staff were caring.

The trust had an extensive team of specialist midwives who supported care to more vulnerable members of the community.

At Glenfield Hospital, there was a quiet room and sitting room reserved for relatives of people being treated in the intensive care unit. As the unit provides care and treatment for people from across Leicestershire, there was a display giving details about local amenities and facilities.

Action had also been taken as a result of a clinical audit, to enhance the experience of patients.

However, the inspection found some areas where improvements were needed.

For example; the trust needed to review resuscitation practice and equipment, to ensure the safety of patients; all staff needed to adhere to infection prevention and control practices and dirty equipment was found in some medical wards.

Staffing issues were highlighted regarding the trust. It needed to ensure it had the appropriate number of suitably qualified staff available. However, the trust has a recruitment plan in place and continues to recruit to vacancies its own staffing review identified.

The trust also needed to ensure that staff received the training and support they needed that would be appropriate to their roles.

Some areas of the trust’s building needed attention, some rooms were seen to be too small, access was difficult to one area and a roof was leaking at the time of the inspection.

The report, based on a combination of their findings, information from CQC’s Intelligent Monitoring system, and information provided by patients, the public and other organisations, will be available on CQC’s website on Friday, 28 March.

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals for CQC, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:

“We found that the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust was providing services that were safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led. Staff we spoke to were positive, and patients we spoke to were positive about the care that they had received at the trust.

“However, there are improvements that could be made at the trust and our inspectors will be returning in due course to assess whether the necessary changes have been made.”

Whenever CQC inspects it will always ask the following five questions of every service: Is it safe? Is it effective? Is it caring? Is it responsive to people’s needs? Is it well-led?

Ends

For media enquiries, call regional communications manager, Louise Grifferty, on 07717 422917 or email louise.grifferty@cqc.org.uk. The CQC press office is also available on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143. For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.

Notes to editors

The Care Quality Commission has already presented its findings to a local Quality Summit, including NHS commissioners, providers, regulators and other public bodies. The purpose of the Quality Summit is to develop a plan of action and recommendations based on the inspection team’s findings.

CQC inspectors will continue to monitor the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and will return in due course to carry out further inspections as part of its regulatory programme.

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals for CQC, Professor Sir Mike Richards, announced in July that he will lead significantly larger inspection teams than before, headed up by clinical and other experts including trained members of the public. Sir Mike identified 18 NHS trusts representing the variation of care in hospitals in England. These will be the first hospitals to test the new inspection regime.