England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has told North Bristol NHS Trust that it must make improvements in the quality of services at Southmead Hospital.
A team of inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited the trust unannounced in November 2017 to check the quality of five core services: urgent and emergency care, medical care, surgery, end of life care and outpatients.
CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the trust well led?
The trust’s overall rating remains as Requires Improvement with safety, effectiveness and responsiveness to people’s needs all being rated Requires Improvement. Caring remains Good, while well led has been downgraded to Requires improvement.
Full details of the ratings are available on our website.
CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Amanda Stanford, said:
“Despite the increasing demand, North Bristol Trust has worked to make improvements inspectors had previously identified as required improvement to manage the flow of patients needing urgent attention."
“While we have found some excellent progress in the emergency department, too many patients are still waiting for beds to become available, or to be discharged when they no longer need to be in hospital.”
“The inspectors found that the trust had not taken sufficient action early enough to anticipate increasing demand over the winter months. Although managers were aware of the challenges caused by extra operational pressures the plans were not fully tested or signed off at the time of the inspection. The use of additional beds and wards had become ‘acceptable’ and the divisional leads could not describe plans to cope with winter pressures."
“Patients were not always being discharged in a timely manner, which again affected the patient flow around the hospital. This was affected by delayed transfers of care into the community hospitals and the wider care system. At the time of the inspection, there were a high number of patients who were medically fit for discharge. This resulted in cancellations for surgical patients and patients booked for radiology procedures."
“In End of Life Care our rating of Outstanding for caring is recognition of the trust’s frontline staff; who we found to be caring and conscientious at all times."
“As a result of this inspection, we have made it clear to the trust where it must take action to further improve these services. Since the inspection the trust has been responding to these safety concerns and making changes to lessen the risks. We will continue to monitor the services involved, and we will in any case return in the near future to check progress.”
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As a result of this inspection, we have made it clear to the trust where it must take action to further improve...
CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Amanda Stanford