The Care Quality Commission has rated the Whittington Health NHS Trust as Good overall. It was previously also rated Good.
Whittington Health was rated Outstanding for being caring and Good for being effective, responsive and well-led. It was rated Requires Improvement for being safe, following the inspection during dates in December 2019 and January 2020.
Inspectors visited the following five core services: Urgent and emergency care services (ED): Surgery; Critical Care; Community health services for children, young people and families and Specialist community mental health services for children and young people. In addition, inspectors undertook a well-led inspection of the trust’s leadership team.
CQC found outstanding practice in many parts of the trust including the ED. Staff worked with a charity that provided support to older people, especially those who have dementia. Staff had close links with a charity that could offer help to adults with multiple and complex needs and support for vulnerable young people who being criminally exploited.
The stoma nurse set up and facilitated three stoma care support groups which met the needs of the local people at a time which suited them. The nurse demonstrated dedication to their role by working with the groups outside of their working day - to go above and beyond standard stoma care.
The speech and language therapy team in Camden had developed a training package for parents of newly diagnosed deaf children. This enabled the team to support parents to develop skills to communicate effectively.
The new Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) service had been designed in true collaboration with a range of local stakeholders. The SEMH model had been a direct result of listening to the local population who said they needed greater access, choice and reduced waiting times for young people who required support for their emotional wellbeing and mental health. The acronym name of the service had been decided by young people during the design process.
Young people, families and carers were fully involved in the planning of their care and the service was accessible to people from a range of cultural backgrounds.
CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: “The Whittington Health NHS Trust has a clear vision and set of values with quality and sustainability as the top priorities. This underpinned a culture which is patient centred. I was delighted to see that the trust was rated Outstanding in CQC’s caring category and for its community services.
“As an integrated care organisation, the trust is leading the way in the provision of well-integrated community, mental health and acute hospital services. The trust planned services effectively to meet the needs of the local population. By investing in community services for elderly patients, the trust had been successful in reducing the number of patients who needed to be readmitted to the hospital. As a result, the trust was one of the best performing trust’s for emergency readmission rates.
“The leadership team and staff generally deserve praise for continuing to provide good overall care to its patients.”
NHS Improvement has rated Whittington Health NHS Trust as Good overall for the way it uses its resources. The combined CQC quality and NHSI Use of Resources rating is Good.
You can read the report in full when it is published on CQC’s website at: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RKE
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