Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes report on the quality of care provided by Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, rating the trust as ‘Good’

England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, has published his first report on the quality of care provided by Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Under its new inspection model, CQC has given individual ratings to each of the core services at the trust’s hospitals; urgent and emergency services (A&E), medical care (including older people’s care), surgery, critical care, services for children and young people, end of life care and outpatients and diagnostic imaging.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection, which took place between 8 and 11 December, found the trust was Good with regard to whether services were effective, caring, well-led and responsive and Requires Improvement with regard to whether services were safe.

Reports relating to the services inspected are published on CQC’s website today and are available via the following link: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RTG.

CQC found many areas of outstanding practice, including:

• Ward 205 is to be commended for helping to improve the mental wellbeing of elderly patients and patients with dementia through the use of a reminiscence room, pictorial information and advanced service planning.
• The maternity department bereavement service has been recognised by the Royal College of Midwives. The lead midwife has been nominated for the Royal College of Midwives Award 2015 National Maternity Support Foundation Award (NMSF) for Bereavement Care.
• The KITE (Kids In Their own Environment) team provides an innovative outreach support service to children in their own homes.
• The trust has a 24 hour mental health liaison support with a one hour target response time for patients experiencing a mental health crisis.
• Staff are passionate and committed to providing a good standard of care for end of life patients. Staff are positive about their role despite the resource difficulties they were experiencing.
• Respiratory medicine has introduced the use of patient colour-coded wristbands to identify how much oxygen each patient needs. Excessive amounts of oxygen can be dangerous for some patients and it is important the correct amount is administered.

CQC found some areas where the trust must make improvements, including:

• Suitable arrangements must be implemented for acting in accordance with the best interests of patients without the capacity to give consent to care and treatment, in line with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• The trust must ensure that all district nursing staff are able to attend mandatory training and other essential training as required by the needs of the service.
• The trust must take appropriate steps to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled, and experienced district nursing staff available at all times.
• The trust must ensure that electronic patient records can be located promptly by staff visiting patients at home, before providing care and treatment.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said:

“On all of our inspections, inspectors ask whether a service is safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well-led.

“Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was found to be providing a good service overall. Patient feedback during our inspection was positive and staff were praised for their caring and compassionate nature. All departments were clearly working very hard to achieve positive patient outcomes.

“While some areas for improvement have been highlighted to the leadership at the trust, particularly regarding safety, overall this is a good trust providing caring, effective and responsive services that are well led. The trust knows what action it now needs to take to make any improvements.”

CQC has asked the trust to send us a report that says what action they are going to take to make improvements. Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides both acute hospital and community-based health services, serving a population of over 600,000 people in and around Southern Derbyshire.

Ends

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