England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust as Outstanding following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission in April and May. This is the second time the trust has been rated Outstanding.
CQC inspectors visited the trust between 24 April and 17 May and looked at six core services: urgent and emergency care, medical care, surgery, critical care, outpatients and community dental services. CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the trust well led?
The trust is rated as Outstanding overall, as well as for whether its services are caring, responsive and well led. It is rated as Good for whether its services are safe and effective. Full reports including the latest ratings are available on our website.
Professor Ted Baker, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said:
“Once again we have found the quality of services delivered by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust to be outstanding.
“Three years ago Salford Royal set the standard for other NHS trusts - and I am pleased to report that they continue to deliver the high quality services that patients want from the NHS.
“We found many examples of outstanding practice with services tailored to meet the needs of individual patients and a strong focus on providing continuity and integrated care from the hospital into the community.
“It is the hallmark of an outstanding trust that they continually strive to review and improve services. The feedback from service users and stakeholders shows that they are succeeding, and I congratulate everyone at the trust on retaining their Outstanding rating”
Inspectors found the trusts leadership team was involved in tackling the challenges facing the trust and was fully committed to providing high quality services.
Staff recognised incidents and reported them appropriately, infection control practices were good and medicines were prescribed, recorded and stored appropriately. Inspectors saw how staff truly respected and valued patients as individuals, involving them in decisions about their care.
Surgery was rated Good, an improvement on its previous rating. There were good examples of multidisciplinary working to benefit patients, especially on the wards, during theatre huddles and handovers. Outpatient services, critical care and community dental services were all rated as Good.
CQC found some areas of outstanding practice, including:
- The trust was a leader for integrated care services, it contributed to a model of care that ensured patient continuity of care by employing and working directly with social and primary care staff and providers – reducing the need for hospital admissions.
- The trust was recognised internationally for its use of the electronic patient records technology, which was used to better advance patient safety.
- The stroke service worked with external partners and there had been extensive workforce redesign to improve the service. The service provided in house training for staff and was involved in the delivery of training to external staff and other agencies
There were some areas where CQC has told the trust it should make improvements; for example, action is needed to improve response times to complaints and to ensure consistency in the quality of incident investigations.
CQC has also published the trust’s Use of Resources report, which is based on an assessment undertaken by NHS Improvement. The trust has been rated as Outstanding for using its resources productively.
The combined rating for the trust, taking into account CQC’s inspection for the quality of services and NHSI’s assessment of Use of Resources, is Outstanding.
Once again we have found the quality of services delivered by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust to be outstanding
CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker