CQC pledges to listen to public about quality of care at Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

19 February 2010

CQC, Monitor and NHS North West to increase scrutiny on trust.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) today (Friday) pledged to listen carefully to the views of patients as it looks into the quality of care at Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The independent regulator is currently considering the trust’s application to register, as part of the new regulation system to be introduced from April 1.

Under the new system, all NHS trusts must register with CQC and demonstrate that they meet essential standards set by the government. Trusts will have a legal obligation to meet standards and CQC has new enforcement powers to take action where trusts are not complying.

CQC said that it was very aware of public concern about standards at Tameside General Hospital and of the need to provide an independent assessment. It plans to provide this assessment as part of the registration process, with work comprising the following elements:

• CQC will scrutinise the trust’s registration application against the information it holds including from previous inspections, mortality rates and surveys of patients and staff. CQC has requested additional evidence from the trust in areas where it is seeking greater reassurance
• Meetings with Tameside Hospital Action Group and the Local Involvement Network (LINk)
• Written evidence from the council’s overview and scrutiny committee
• Possible spot-checks on clinical areas, where there is evidence of concern

CQC’s work is part of a number of measures agreed with Monitor, the regulator of foundation trusts, and NHS North West, the strategic health authority, to place increased scrutiny on the trust. Monitor and Tameside Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have jointly commissioned an independent review of governance at the trust, while NHS North West will review local commissioning arrangements.

Sue McMillan, CQC’s regional director for the North West region, said: “We are very aware of public concern around the quality of care at this trust and we will listen closely to what patients are saying. We want to know whether there are issues that we are not picking up through other sources. Patients are often the first to know of problems and it is absolutely crucial that we listen with great care to what they say.

“We have been monitoring the trust’s performance closely and have highlighted where improvements were necessary. We inspected the trust in December and required the trust to take action to improve its systems to prevent and control infections. The trust responded swiftly to address our concerns.

“We have also been monitoring mortality rates and have been in close discussions with the trust around its plans to reduce these rates.

“However, we are increasingly aware of the public concern and we want to ensure we take full account of this as we consider the trust’s application to register.

“This will be a fair and open process and we will report fully on any concerns, as well as any positive outcomes we identify. We will work effectively with the trust, Monitor and NHS North West, making sure we all play our part in ensuring that patients receive safe, quality care.”

CQC said registering trusts was the first step in the new system. If there is evidence of a significant breach of the standards, CQC could impose a conditional licence, requiring improvements within a specified deadline.

Once trusts are registered, CQC will continuously monitor performance by conducting inspections, analysing data and talking to patients and other NHS bodies.

Where it finds trusts are not meeting standards, it has tough new enforcement powers to drive improvements, such as issuing a warning notice, fines, prosecution, restrictions to services or in extreme cases closure.

Ms McMillan said: “Our primary aim is to work with trusts, patients and other groups to make services better. But if it is necessary to use our powers to enforce standards, we won’t hesitate to do so.”

Ends

Notes to editors