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England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals is inviting members of the public to tell his inspection panel what they think of the services provided by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. Their views and experiences will help inspectors decide what to look at when they inspect the University Hospital of North Tees and University Hospital of Hartlepool in July 2015.

The Trust will be inspected and given an overall rating under a new method of inspection introduced by the Care Quality Commission. The formal inspection of the Trust will start on 7 July 2015.

The Chief Inspector, Professor Sir Mike Richards, has said that he will lead significantly larger inspection teams than before, headed up by clinical and other experts including trained members of the public.

To ensure the views of patients and the local community are properly heard, the inspectors will be holding listening events on the following dates:

• Wednesday, 1 July, 6.00pm. Newtown Community Resource Centre, 123 Durham Road, Stockton on Tees. TS19 0DE
• Monday, 6 July, 6.00pm. Best Western Grand Hotel, Swainson Street, Hartlepool, Co. Durham. TS24 8AA

People are being encouraged to attend a listening event to find out more about the inspection process, to tell the team about their experiences of care from the past year and to say where they would like to see improvements made in the future. Those who cannot attend are being asked to share their experience by:

• Visiting: www.cqc.org.uk/syeteesandhartlepool
• Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk
• By letter: CQC, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4PA
• By phone: 03000 61 61 61

Sir Mike said:

"The new inspections are designed to provide people with a clear picture of the quality of the services in their local hospital, exposing poor or mediocre care as well as highlighting the many hospitals providing good and excellent care.

"We know there is too much variation in quality – these new in-depth inspections will allow us to get a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than ever before.

"Of course we will be talking to doctors and nurses, hospital managers and patients in the hospital. But it is vital that we also hear the views of the people who have had care at any of the hospitals run by the trust, or anyone else who wants to share information with us. This will help us plan our inspection, and so help us focus on the things that really matter to people who depend on this service.

“This is your opportunity to tell me and my team what you think, and make a difference to NHS services in the local area.”

Sir Mike's inspection team is expected to look in detail at eight key service areas: A&E; medical care surgery; intensive and critical care; maternity; paediatrics/children’s care; end of life care; and outpatients. As well as: Community dentistry, Community services for children and young people, Community services for adults, Community inpatients and Community end of life care.

A full report of the inspectors’ findings will be published by the Care Quality Commission later in the year. The Trust will be one of the first to be given one of the following ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requiring improvement, or Inadequate.

For further information please contact CQC Regional Communications Officer Mark Humphreys on 0191 233 3519. For media enquiries about the Care Quality Commission, please call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here (please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters).

For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.

Notes to editors

CQC is asking people who would like to attend the listening event with special requirements to contact us either by telephone or online. This will help us with planning for the event, but people are free to turn up on the evening even if they haven’t registered as the events are very informal. We’d appreciate it if you could include these details in any coverage as we are keen to reach as wide an audience as possible. 

While the listening events will not be open to the media, we will make sure there are other opportunities for journalists to talk to panel members about the inspection – please contact us and we will set something up for you. The listening event is being held to enable members of the public to share their experiences of care with members of the inspection team. These discussions will take place in small groups, and we want people to be able to talk safe in the knowledge that the confidences they are sharing will be respected.

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.