CQC report highlights improvements in quality of care

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust is celebrating the Trust’s achievements that, following its routine re-inspection, 70% of its services are now rated as good or outstanding.

Over 50 inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited parts of the Trust in March 2017 over three days, followed by unannounced visits. They met, observed and talked to Trust employees, patients and family members.

Although the Trust’s overall rating has not yet changed, and is the same as other providers within the STP, there are significant improvements in service and domain ratings.

• End of life care is rated as “outstanding”, joining the Trust’s existing outstanding rating for community children’s and young people’s services.
• Recognising the compassion of the Trust’s staff, the CQC have rated the Trust as “outstanding” in the caring domain.
• The CQC report underlines increasing confidence in the clinical and senior leadership of the Trust, with a “good” rating for the well-led domain.
• The safety domain is “requires improvement”; demonstrating progress since the previous inspection.  But underlining that there remains work to do.

Toby Lewis, chief executive of the Trust said: “I would like to thank the Care Quality Commission inspectors for their reports. We are all pleased that they recognised real improvement since the Trust was inspected in 2014. I am delighted with the rating for our innovative partnership for end of life care, which we believe is one of the best services in the country, and underlines our strong tradition of partnership on the patch.  The service is a role model for the wider STP.

“I want to pay tribute to our clinical teams for their continued dedication and compassion, which is well reflected in the report.  There is no complacency at all, and our work to improve emergency care on our adult wards continues.  The good well led rating is particularly pleasing given our commitment to developing clinical leaders and emphasising devolved responsibility within a wider system.”

Chief Nurse, Elaine Newell, said: “We are pleased that the CQC raised no immediate safety concerns and improved our safety rating. We recognise that we have more to do to ensure we deliver consistent care across all our services, all of the time.

“Over the past 12 months we have implemented our safety plan across medical, surgical and community wards. This plan is a tool to make sure that basic safety checks are completed for each patient within 24 hours of admission – our always events. If checks are missed we have a robust system to ensure they are identified and corrected.

“Recruitment to our vacant nurse positions is going very well, enabling us to move towards fully staffed teams and reduce temporary staffing levels. I am confident that our care will continue to improve and we look forward to welcoming the Care Quality Commission inspectors back in the future.”