Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes his findings on the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
2 Apr 2014 02:21 PM
England's Chief
Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, has published his first
report on the quality of care provided by Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust – and has identified that overall the trust
“requires improvement” due to failings at the Blackpool Victoria
Hospital, Blackpool
The ratings for each hospital
are as follows and the links to embargoed reports are found
here:
The inspection team found that
generally services at the trust’s three hospitals were effective, caring,
and well led - and that many services were delivered to a good standard.
However, Blackpool Victoria Hospital needed to be safer and more responsive to
patients’ needs. In the maternity and family planning area inspectors
rated the services as “inadequate” due to issues with the
effectiveness of services
The trust was inspected under
radical changes which have been introduced by the Care Quality Commission
providing a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than ever
before.
An inspection team which
included doctors, nurses, and hospital managers, trained members of the public,
CQC inspectors and analysts spent two days at Blackpool Victoria, Blackpool,
Clifton Hospital, Lytham St Annes, and Fleetwood Hospital, Fleetwood in
January.
The team examined the care
provided in accident and emergency, medical care (including older
people’s care), surgery, intensive/critical care, maternity and family
planning, children’s care, end of life care and outpatients.
Inspectors also visited all three hospitals unannounced in one
weekend.
The reports which CQC has
published today are based on a combination of inspection findings, information
from CQC’s Intelligent Monitoring system, and information provided by
patients, the public and other organisations.
Across the trust, the inspection
team found areas of good practice. These included:
- Care in the trust was recognised
as good by patients spoken to, and the staff were praised by many who had used
hospital services.
- The trust has a highly committed
workforce, with a strong team culture.
- The trust-wide chaplaincy and
end of life care service is recognised as highly responsive, and is valued, by
those who have used it.
- New facilities for the children
and within maternity services were recognised as good
developments
Inspectors said that the trust
must improve in the following areas:
- The trust must improve its
medical records; both in terms of record-keeping and timely access to
notes.
- The trust must ensure that
appropriate and timely pre–operative assessment is always undertaken by a
specialist.
- The trust must improve how
incidents are reported; ensuring all staff are aware of their responsibilities
to report both incidents and near misses.
- The trust must ensure that
staffing levels in all clinical areas are appropriate for the level of care
provided.
CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals,
Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:
“We know that Blackpool
Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been on a journey of improvement
since the Keogh review, and the effort made in all three hospitals was there to
see. Although, the trust still have a long way to go to reach their goal and we
would wish to see even further improvements when we
return.
“My team were encouraged
to find that the staff have a positive view of the improvements made so far,
and that they were proud to work for the trust. Staff also expressed a high
degree of support for the executive team, who have become increasingly visible
within the hospitals.
“People are entitled to be
treated in services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and responsive
care. Together, we are cautiously optimistic that the staff and management team
here can deliver the improvements which we require on behalf of their
patients.”
Ends
For media enquiries, call the
CQC press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917
232 143.
For general enquiries, call
03000 61 61 61.
Notes to
editors
The Chief Inspector, Professor
Sir Mike Richards, announced in July 2013 that he would lead significantly
larger inspection teams than before, headed up by clinical and other experts
including trained members of the public.