St George’s maintains requires improvement rating by CQC, and recommends Trust be taken out of quality special measures
- Trust commended for ‘significant improvement’ by the CQC
- CQC recommends Trust be taken out of special measures for quality of services
- Services for children and young people rated outstanding
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been rated requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission, and commended for ‘significant improvement’ following an inspection in July this year.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has also recommended that the Trust be taken out of special measures for the quality of services it provides – a big and positive step forward for St George’s.
Both St George’s and Queen Mary’s Hospitals received individual requires improvement ratings, as per the CQC’s previous inspection.
The Trust overall was rated requires improvement in the CQC’s safe, effective, responsive and well-led domains. The Trust was rated good for being caring.
‘Outstanding services for children and young people’
St George’s services for children and young people were rated outstanding overall – which is huge credit to the staff involved in delivering these key services.
The CQC cited many examples of outstanding practice for children and young people, including emergency asthma bags for local schools, weekly meetings for parents on the hospital’s neonatal unit at St George’s, as well as pagers for parents so staff can easily contact them once their children are out of surgery.
The CQC also found examples of outstanding practice in our Emergency Department at St George’s, including the team’s approach to research, the department’s blood testing ‘hot lab’, as well as the ‘point of care’ flu testing introduced to the service last year.
The inspectors also praised practice in surgery, such as the Trust’s Get Set 4 Surgery initiative for patients awaiting operations, plus the use of innovative tibial nail technology in orthopaedic surgery. Surgery at St George’s also improved its overall rating to good.
The Trust’s outpatient service at St George’s – a key focus area for the organisation in recent years – improved its rating to good for safety and requires improvement for well-led.
Three of the Trust’s core services improved to good for being safe, and another three services improved their rating against the well-led domain.
The CQC also identified some areas for improvement – including making sure patient records are stored securely, and that patient consent is effectively documented. Action plans to address areas for improvement have already been agreed.
‘All the credit goes to our staff’
Jacqueline Totterdell, Chief Executive, said: “This is a really positive and significant step forward for the organisation – and all the credit goes to our staff.
“Many of our core services have seen an improvement in their rating and, crucially, the CQC has recommended that we are taken out of quality special measures, which is just reward for the focus our staff have put on patient care in recent years.
“We know there is more work to do, but today’s report confirms that we are edging closer to our ambition of providing outstanding care, every time for patients, staff and the communities we serve.”
Notes to editors
Read the full report on the CQC website.
