Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes report on the quality of care provided by The Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre rating it as ‘Good’

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

Under its new inspection model, CQC has given individual ratings to each of the core services at the independent NHS treatment centre; surgery, outpatients and diagnostic imaging and termination of pregnancy.

The Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre, in Lister Road, Nottingham – which is also known as Circle Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre - was rated as ‘Good’ overall, following CQC’s inspection, which took place on 27 and 28 January.

The trust’s surgery service - which deals with orthopaedic, gynaecology and general surgery - was rated as ‘Outstanding’ overall, while outpatients and diagnostic imaging was rated as ‘Good’ overall and termination of pregnancy was rated as ‘Requires Improvement’.

A full report of CQC’s findings will be published on CQC’s website today at the following link: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-120587279.

Across the trust, the inspection team found areas of outstanding practice which included:

• The centre’s ‘Stop the Line’ initiative, where any staff member could stop activity if they felt patient safety may have been compromised leading to the immediate escalation and resolution of that issue.
• The treatment centre made calls to patients, 28 days after they had had an operation, to monitor clinical outcomes, including infections following surgery. This allowed the service to determine whether patients needed any further care and helped it gather feedback on how patients felt about their treatment.
• The implementation of a new care certificate for healthcare assistants which offered specific role related training and skills development for those staff.

However, the inspection also found improvements were needed and the trust has been told that it must take action to improve in the following areas:

• The service needs to ensure that medication administration records in the termination of pregnancy service are legible and written in accordance with GMC guidance.
• The prescribing of Anti-D immunoglobulin medication in the termination of pregnancy service must only take place when it is established this is a clinically suitable treatment for the patient.

CQC’s inspection team informed the trust of its findings immediately after the inspection so that it could take steps to make any improvements.

CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:

“We found The Nottingham NHS Treatment Centre was providing a good service to its patients overall. Our inspectors witnessed a number of areas of outstanding practice and those working at the service were seen to be dedicated and caring and morale was high.

“While there were clearly many areas of good practice, there were also some areas for improvement and we have told the trust where it needs to make changes. The trust’s leadership knows what it must now do to ensure those improvements take place and our inspectors will return to check on progress at the trust in the future.

“People deserve to be treated in services which are safe, caring, effective, well-led, and responsive to their needs and this is what we look at when we carry out our inspections.”

The report which CQC publishes today is based on a combination of its inspection findings, information from CQC’s Intelligent Monitoring system, and information provided by patients, the public and other organisations.

Ends

For media enquiries contact Louise Grifferty, regional engagement manager on 07717 422917 or CQC’s press office on 0207 4489401.

For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.