The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recognised further significant improvements at the Trust’s hospitals over the last two years. It has upgraded its rating to “outstanding” in the question of whether the organisation is well-led and continues to assess it as “outstanding” when asking whether its services are caring.
A further improvement in end of life care has been recognised with an “outstanding” rating being given overall for the quality of services provided when patients are dying.
Overall the Trust remains at a rating of “good” but with a significantly improved picture of the quality of care and leadership at its hospitals. While the report highlights efforts made to improve waiting times in the face of record growth in patient numbers, the organisation remains rated as “requires improvement” for the responsive aspects of its services.
For its use of resources, the Trust is also rated as “requires improvement”. However, the report recognises that the Trust compares well against other hospitals across a number of measures of efficiency and acknowledges its focus on achieving financial sustainability.
One of the major parts of the most recent inspection was in the area of leadership or “well-led” where the Trust is now judged to be “outstanding”, reflecting a positive culture in which staff are committed to the hospitals’ vision for the future and are supported by excellent leadership in their teams.
Trust chief executive Roland Sinker, said: “I’m delighted to see that the continued progress our staff have made over the last two years has been recognised by the CQC in their recent visit. It is important that our patients have confidence in their local hospital and to be rated as “outstanding” for being both caring and well-led is a reflection of the compassion and commitment our teams show to their patients every day.”
“There is always more to do and our aim is to see further progress in the areas we are now focusing on when the CQC visit us next time. I’m pleased that our strong relationships with our health and care partners is recognised because this is the key to making further improvements in access for patients to health services when they are needed.”
Chief nurse at CUH, Lorraine Szeremeta, said: “We are delighted with this report, which describes how we are making good progress with our on-going mission to provide care that is safe, kind and excellent in line with our stated values. As we continue to plan our next series of improvements, we will listen carefully to our patients and the stories they tell about their experience of care here.”
Speciality lead for palliative and end of life care and Macmillan consultant, Dr Rosemary Wade, added: “We know for our patients and their families we have only one chance to get this right and are therefore immensely proud to be rated as “outstanding” overall for our end of life care. It is a reflection of all the hard work going on across our hospitals, high standards of care provided by staff, and the appreciation of patients and relatives.”