Professor Sir Mike Richards is bringing in radical changes to the way we inspect hospitals and is introducing the changes to 18 NHS trusts by the end of next month.
How will the NHS trusts be inspected?
We will carry out a mixture of announced and unannounced inspections of hospitals.
The inspection teams will be bigger and will be led by Professor Sir Mike Richards. The teams will also include:
- a senior NHS clinician or executive.
- professional and clinical staff.
- Experts by Experience.
- patients.
- carers.
- other experts.
The departments/wards that the inspection teams will always look at are:
Sir Mike Richards said, “These new-style inspections will allow us to get a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than has ever been possible before in England.
- accident and emergency (A&E)
- medical pathways including frail elderly
- surgical pathways
- critical care
- maternity
- paediatrics/Children
- end of life care
- outpatients
“Inspections will be supported by an improved method for identifying risks and with much more information direct from patients and their families, and hospital staff.”
Visit Methodology behind our new inspections for more information.
First wave of inspections
The NHS trusts included in the first wave of inspections are listed below.
High risk rating
- Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Barts Health NHS Trust
- Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
- South London Healthcare NHS Trust
- Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
- The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Low risk rating
- Airedale NHS Foundation Trust
- Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust
- Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
- Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
- University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Variety of risk points
- Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust
- Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust
- The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
I receive care from one of these trusts – what can I expect?
Each inspection will provide you with a clear picture of the quality of care in your local hospital.
It will highlight hospitals that provide good and excellent care as well as those that provide poor care.
Where we find failings, we will work with Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority to produce a clear programme to help the trust:
- make improvements.
- deal with failure.
- hold people to account.
Find out more
Visit Methodology behind our new inspections for more information.
Read the press release: