England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has found significant improvement in the quality of services for patients during the latest inspection of Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust. As a result of the inspection, the trust is now rated as Good.
A team of inspectors from the Care Quality Commission visited in November and December to check the quality of eight mental health core services and three community health care services. CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the trust well led?
The trust is now rated as Good for being effective, caring, responsive and well led, and remains rated as Requires Improvement for being safe.
The full report, including the ratings is available on our website.
Inspectors found that in child and adolescent mental health wards, areas of concern raised at previous inspections had been addressed. Staff on the wards had gone further than required in making the changes, with a focus on the well-being and recovery of young people. This included staff working with children and young people to create care plans that were meaningful to them. There was also a strong emphasis on young people being part of the community.
Throughout wards for end of life care previous issues CQC identified had been addressed and overall, the service was now rated Good. Inspectors identified a more open and transparent culture, with a positive impact on patient care and staff morale. Staff were supported to report incidents, including near misses and continual learning was encouraged.
In addition, inspectors found that the trust’s Board and senior leadership team had a clear vision and set of values which centred around the key principle of continuous improvement.
The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“Since we inspected services at Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust in June 2015 the organisation has worked to ensure that improvements have been embedded. I am pleased that the trust has taken to heart the findings from our previous inspection reports and built on them to provide improved services to the people of Dorset, particularly in Child and adolescent mental health wards which we have rated as Outstanding.
“The board have ensured they and their senior managers were more visible to front line staff and this has helped to improve communication across the services. We have found a noticeable improvement in the culture across the trust, with increased openness and transparency and a clear desire for staff at all levels to learn and improve.
“Some concerns remain, including ligature points on some of the acute mental health wards which had not been identified or dealt with effectively and some medicines were not always being managed in a safe way at a small number of services inspected. However, we found a readiness to discuss safety, and continual learning was encouraged, with staff being supported to report incidents, including near misses.
“The trust knows what it must now do to ensure further improvements are made and we expect the executive team, with the support of their staff, to work on these on behalf of all of their patients. We will return in due course to check on the progress that they have made.”
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I am pleased that the trust has taken to heart the findings from our previous inspection reports and built on them to provide improved services to the people of Dorset
Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals