Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes report on the quality of care provided by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust 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 University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. 

Under its new inspection model, CQC has given individual ratings to each of the core services at the trust; medical care, surgery, critical care, sexual services, end of life care and outpatients and diagnostic imaging.  

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust was rated as ‘Good’ overall, following CQC’s inspection, which took place in January 2015.

The trust was rated as ‘Outstanding’ for whether its services were well-led and ‘Good’ in relation to whether services were safe, effective, caring and responsive.

One of the trust’s core services, critical care, has been rated as ‘Outstanding’, urgent and emergency, medical care, surgery, end of life care and sexual services were rated as ‘Good’ and outpatients was rated as ‘Required Improvement’.

Full reports for the trust will be published on CQC’s website today at the following link: http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RRK

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

• The trust had robust governance processes and a powerful culture of innovation which encouraged staff to take opportunities to enhance services.
• The trust had strong recruitment practices, where teams were encouraged to over recruit when good candidates presented at interview to secure capable individuals when they were available.
• Inspectors saw examples where the trust had engaged with patients over previous problems and changed practice; such as complimentary hearing aid boxes and providing sleep masks and ear plugs to all inpatients.
• The use of theatre technicians to support trauma teams in the emergency department was indicative of the trust wide multidisciplinary working. The practice provided support to the duty anaesthetist for more complex patients and allowed learning between disciplines and departments.
• The emergency department’s newsletter enabled safety and governance messages to be passed to staff in one concise document. This system reduced the number of emails which gave staff more time.

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:

• Improve infection control and hygiene within Urgent and Emergency Care services.
• Investigate and resolve the small number of delays in patients being seen after their allocated appointment time.
• Ensure sufficient consultation time is available for patients with complex conditions.
• Review progress on achieving the trust’s 31 day cancer standard.
• Ensure appointment to the children’s safeguarding lead post is made.

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 University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust was providing a good service to its patients overall. Our inspectors witnessed a number of areas of outstanding practice and staff were dedicated and caring, led by an excellent leadership team.

“While there were clearly many areas of very good practice, there were also a few areas where improvements were needed 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, call Regional Engagement Officer, Helen Gildersleeve on 0191 233 3379. For media enquiries about the Care Quality Commission, please call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here http://www.cqc.org.uk/media/our-media-office (please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters). For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61