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England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has published his first report on the quality of care provided by Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust at Harrogate District Hospital, North Yorkshire.

The trust was inspected under radical changes introduced by the Care Quality Commission, which provide a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than ever before.

CQC found that Harrogate District Hospital provided care that was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Areas of good practice included:

• The hospital was clean and it had effective systems in place for infection control.
• The trust valued its volunteers and worked closely with them. Volunteers at the trust respond to patients’ needs in many ways, including being used as ‘secret shoppers’ in the outpatients department and as hospital guides. The Patient Voice Group, run by volunteers, played an important role in monitoring patient experience within the trust.
• The trust provides some care remotely using telemedicine*. This allows care to be provided 24 hours, seven days a week in response to people’s needs.

While no significant areas for improvement were identified on the inspection, CQC has advised the trust that it could improve in the following areas:

• Review staffing levels in wards, particularly those caring for older people.
• Improve pain control in some areas in surgery services.
• Improve the recording of “do not attempt cardio pulmonary resuscitation” (DNACPR) for end of life care.
• Review thresholds for reporting serious incidents.

CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards said: “We found that Harrogate District Hospital and its individual services are well-led and that the trust’s Board showed a good understanding of key issues. Most of the patients we spoke to during our visit were positive about their care experiences and much of what we observed was good. We found no evidence to be concerned about the hospital’s mortality or infection rates.” 

CQC spent three days in November at Harrogate District Hospital, one of which was unannounced. Its inspection team included doctors, nurses, hospital managers, trained members of the public, CQC inspectors and analysts.  The team examined the care provided in accident and emergency, medical care (including older people’s care), surgery, intensive/critical care, children’s care, end of life care and outpatients.

The report which CQC publishes today is based on a combination of their findings, information from CQC’s Intelligent Monitoring system, and information provided by patients, the public and other organisations.

The full report is available at Harrogate District Hospital.

CQC will continue to monitor Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and will follow up on its findings and observations from the inspection.

For media enquiries, call David Fryer, regional communications manager on 0790 151 4220.

Also, the CQC press office can be reached 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

1. The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, is leading significantly larger inspection teams than before, headed up by clinical and other experts including trained members of the public. Sir Mike is implementing his new approach to hospital inspection with 18 NHS trusts across England, which represent variation of care. By the end of 2015, CQC will have inspected all acute NHS Trusts in the country with its new inspection model.
2. The Care Quality Commission has presented its findings to a local Quality Summit, including NHS commissioners, providers, regulators and other public bodies. The purpose of the Quality Summit was to develop a plan of action and recommendations based on the inspection team’s findings.
3. Telemedicine: Stroke thrombolysis is provided out of hours with the support of telemedicine. This enabled care to be provided 24 hours, seven days a week. By using telemedicine, consultant cover is provided in collaboration with nearby trusts. This meant that the trust could respond to patients with these specific needs in an effective way.

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.