Chief Inspector of Hospitals rates The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust as Good

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust as Good following inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

Between 20 February and 22 March 2018, a team of CQC inspectors visited six of the trust’s core services across two sites – New Cross Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital. As a result inspectors rated the care provided by staff to be Good regarding whether services were effective, caring, responsive and well-led and as Requires Improvement for whether services were safe.

Following its previous inspection, in June 2015, the trust was rated as Requires Improvement overall and for whether its services were safe and well-led. Its ratings for whether services were effective, caring and responsive were rated Good overall.

Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:

“Overall, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust provides good care to the large population that it serves and the trust can be proud of its service.

“Our return to the trust showed that a number of improvements had been made with regard to whether its services were well-led, and the trust’s leadership is to be commended for this.

“We found staff to be dedicated, kind, caring and patient focused. The local management and leadership of services were both knowledgeable and visible.

“Inspectors also found a number of examples of outstanding practice, notably at New Cross Hospital in Medical Care, Surgery, Maternity, Outpatients and Diagnostic Imaging.

“However, the trust is a large organisation and we found some areas where improvements were needed. This included the safe domain which we rated as Requires Improvement overall.

“The trust has told us they have listened to our inspectors’ findings and we are confident that the executive team, with the support of their staff, will work to deliver these improvements on behalf of all of their patients. We will return in due course to check on the progress that they have made.”

Inspectors found a number of areas of outstanding practice during their inspection. This included anonymous and confidential ‘stress surveys’ for staff. The trust was also working towards creating a ‘suicide training package’ to raise awareness and had taken part in a national mortality review programme to look at the deaths of people with learning disabilities from the age of four. Medical care at New Cross Hospital won the patient safety award with the CCG, for its collaborative work for improved outcomes for patients with pressure ulcers, and its stroke unit won an award for its improvements to care and treatment.

The trust was also involved in a range of innovative projects to improve patient outcomes; one of these looked at the use of smaller pacemakers for patients with heart conditions.

Among the improvements the trust must make improvements are that, at New Cross Hospital, all fridge temperatures are regularly checked and documented, all staff complete their safeguarding training and that record keeping around documentation, sepsis screening are completed accurately.

Equipment checks must be carried out regularly, medicines and products which could cause harm to patients, staff or visitors must be stored safely and that staff respond to the needs of patients in the discharge lounge; including people’s medication needs and deteriorating health conditions.

The trust must ensure that the risk of patients being exposed to infection is kept to minimum in the operating theatres at Cannock Chase Hospital.

Full details of the ratings, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published online.

Read the report

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