The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its report on Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust on Wednesday 17th January following their inspection in November 2017. The inspection assessed the core services of urgent and emergency care and medical care (including older people’s care) at the Alexandra and Worcestershire Royal Hospitals.
The report shows that all four of the core services inspected have improved from ‘inadequate’ to ‘requires improvement’ in the safe domain, urgent and emergency care at the Worcester site now rated ‘good’ in the effective domain and three of the four services have improved their overall rating from ‘inadequate’ to ‘requires improvement’. Given that only four of the twenty-two core services were rated in this inspection, there have been no changes to the overall ratings of the hospitals individually or the Trust overall as a result of this inspection.
The CQC identified outstanding services in this review including medicines safety work by the Pharmacy Team in the Emergency Department (ED) at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, and care for patients with mental health conditions in the ED at the Alexandra Hospital. Evergreen Ward at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, which provides a rehabilitation area for inpatients waiting for discharge, was also singled out for praise for its outstanding work in promoting holistic care and timely discharge of patients.
The CQC also identified areas that the Trust needs to continue to improve. This includes further improvement in the levels of mandatory training, VTE risk assessments at 24 hours post admission, improved responsiveness by specialist doctors for patients in the Emergency Departments, timeframes for resolution of complaints and risk management processes.
I acknowledge that more work needs to be done but I am happy that the hard work of staff and management in the Trust has been recognised by the CQC. Healthcare in Worcestershire has faced challenges in recent years but with significant funding pledges from Government and an effective management team in place the signs are beginning to show that the Trust is moving away from its difficult period.