CQC rate Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust as Good

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust as Good following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

The trust has been rated as Good for providing services that are safe, caring, effective and well-led. However, responsiveness was rated as Requires Improvement. A team of inspectors visited Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the smaller Broadgreen Hospital during March.

Full reports of the inspection can be found at: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RQ6

Ellen Armistead, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals in the north, said:

“When we inspected The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, we found the care and treatment provided to patients was of a good standard across almost all services. End of life care was Outstanding.

“We found many examples of innovation and collaborative working. At the time of the inspection, the trust was working under significant pressure and was striving to sustain the level of care while looking at new ways of working. The new hospital currently under construction will present its own challenges.

“I am sure that the trust will want to focus on access and flow, in particular within the emergency department, where there was significant overcrowding during our visit.

Inspectors found that both hospitals were generally visibly clean and well maintained. There were robust systems in place for the prevention and control of infection.

Care and treatment was delivered by caring, committed, and compassionate staff.

In palliative and end of life care services, inspectors were told numerous stories that demonstrated the compassion, kindness and thoughtfulness of the staff delivering care and treatment.

However; there were pressures in relation to access and flow, predominantly at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Bed occupancy rates, and delayed transfers of care and discharges had an impact on the flow of patients throughout the hospital. There were many patients who were medically fit but were unable to leave.

The emergency department struggled to meet the national target to admit, transfer or discharge 95% of patients within four hours of arrival although performance was routinely above the England average.

The report identifies several areas of outstanding practice including:

• The electronic whiteboard system used across the trust provided staff with information as to the bed allocated to each patient and to whether patients had particular assessments completed, for example venous thromboembolism (VTE). The board was also used to highlight vulnerable patients.
• The trust had a well-established and well-staffed palliative care directorate that worked closely with other organisations to improve the quality of end of life services in Merseyside. The service was embedded across the trust and held in high regard by all the wards CQC visited.

The report also identifies some areas where the trust must take action, including:

• The trust must ensure that emergency resuscitation equipment is readily available in each area, to provide timely access to emergency resuscitation equipment. At the time of the inspection inspectors found equipment shared between wards at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital which meant there may be a delay in accessing emergency equipment.
• The trust must ensure that fridges used to store medications are kept at the required temperatures and checks are completed on the fridges. Where fridge temperatures are recorded outside the recommended range, steps must be taken to identify if medicines stored in the fridges are fit for use.

CQC will be presenting its findings to a local Quality Summit, including NHS commissioners, providers, regulators and other public bodies. The purpose of the Quality Summit is to develop a plan of action and recommendations based on the inspection team’s findings.

Ends

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