England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust as Requires Improvement following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust was formed when Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust acquired Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust on 1 April 2017. The trust provides acute, hospital- based, services including urgent and emergency care, medicine, surgery, critical care, maternity and gynaecology services, neonatal and paediatric care, end of life care, outpatient care and diagnostic imaging services.
Between 5 June and 12 July 2018, a team of CQC inspectors visited core services at the trust including urgent and emergency care, medical care, surgery, critical care, maternity services, end of life care and outpatients at Hinchingbrooke Hospital. We also inspected urgent and emergency care and medicine at Peterborough City Hospital.
Inspectors rated the care provided to be Good for whether its services are caring and responsive and Requires Improvement regarding whether services are safe, effective and well-led.
Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“Our inspection at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust found a number of improvements were needed.
“Inspectors found the trust needed to ensure that systems for overseeing mandatory training for staff, safeguarding and its assessment of risks to patients were sufficiently robust. Consistent and reliable systems and processes needed to be in place to ensure there was better sharing and learning from incidents particularly with regard to surgery.
“We found that patient care records were not always accurate, complete and contemporaneous and there were concerns surrounding the timely assessment of patients arriving at Hinchingbrooke Hospital’s emergency department.
“The trust needed to take action to ensure medicines are stored, prescribed and administered appropriately.
“However, inspectors also found a number of areas of outstanding practice particularly with regard to patients at the end of their lives.
“We have reported our findings to the trust leadership, which knows what it must do to bring about further improvements and ensure it maintains any already made."
Overall the trust has been told it must ensure that systems and processes are in place to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of services provided, including mandatory training attendance, patient care records are accurate and that risk assessments are completed for all patients.
Among the outstanding practice inspectors saw was the part the trust played in the Dying Well in Custody pilot with a local prison. Specialist consultants worked with prison and hospital staff to ensure patients were safely admitted to hospital or referred to the local hospice. There was also an end of life volunteer support service which benefitted patients who did not have close family.
The trust’s surgery service had also been recognised for its outstanding practice in general and cancer surgery in the 2018 ‘Getting It Right First Time’ (GIRFT) report.
The full inspection report, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published online at: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RGN
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