A CARE Quality Commission inspection has found significant improvements at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Worcestershire Royal.
The Royal received an overall rating of ‘Good’ for services for children and young people, up from ‘requires Improvement’ in 2017.
Meanwhile every single service across the Trust are now rated at least ‘good’ for caring.
The CQC carried out the inspection in May and June this year and as a result the trust is now overall rated as ‘requires improvement’ up from ‘inadequate’.
Although more improvement is needed, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals Professor Ted Baker has recommended the trust exits special measures, where it has been for four years, once a support package from NHS England is agreed and in place, something expected sooner rather than later.
Professor Baker said: “Staff and leaders at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals can be proud of the progress achieved. Our inspectors saw good and improved practice across the trust.
“We also saw examples of outstanding practice in the hospital’s diagnostic imaging, where staff delivered excellent care based on people’s individual needs.
“However, work was required to ensure people always had timely access to the right care, including in emergency care at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
“Some staff needed safeguarding and infection protection training, and staffing levels in some departments were not always adequate.”
The Trust’s chief executive Matthew Hopkins said: “I’m really pleased. This is great news for the people of Worcestershire and all our staff.”
He said the improvement had been forged on three key points: quality improvement and focusing on the world of the patient, cutting waste and waste production and better organisation, doing the right things in the right order.
“We have set ourselves and high bar and whilst thee has been improvement there is no doubt we still have work to do,” he said.
He added getting out of special measures would help with staff recruitment while moving patients in a timely manner would speed up ambulance handovers and reduce pressure on A&E.
“In some areas for improvement highlighted in the report, we have already made further progress – for example improving our mandatory training compliance.
“In others, not least in delivering a sustainable solution to our major financial difficulties, we know further immediate action is necessary because we have to find ways of reducing waste, improving efficiency and delivering the best possible value for the hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that we are trusted with each year.”
One area of disappointment was at Evesham Hospital which was pulled up over infection control and safety checks, on which he said: “We have already taken action to address some of the issues highlighted around compliance with surgical safety checks, infection control and mandatory training.
“In addition, some of the service changes that we are planning for the Evesham site will further support improvements to quality and safety.”
