CQC praises care and compassion following inspection
Our staff have been praised for “putting patients at the heart of everything” in the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report, which is published today (1 February).
Inspectors carried out an unannounced visit of our Trust in November and spoke to staff, patients and visitors on five medical wards.
The CQC rated us as Good for caring but gave us an overall rating of Requires Improvement. They rated us as Requires Improvement for safety and effectiveness and said a shortage of nursing and healthcare assistants was having an impact on patient care. They added that the number of No Criteria to Reside patients on wards affected arrangements to admit, treat and discharge patients.
The CQC identified six actions that our Trust must take to improve safety and effectiveness and a further seven actions that we should take.
Despite the huge pressure on our medical wards at the time and extra patients in bays, the CQC said we controlled infection risk to protect patients and colleagues and staff kept equipment and ward areas clean.
Inspectors highlighted the following outstanding practice:
- Medicine division staff were praised for a range of quality improvement projects, including falls, nutrition, hydration and deconditioning programmes
- Inspectors observed staff who were focused on “providing the highest quality care possible” and “put patients at the heart of everything they did”
Sam Higginson, NNUH Chief Executive, said: “I’d like to thank the staff, patients and carers who took part in this inspection. The report summarises the challenges we face with extremely high demand and a high number of patients in our hospital who no longer require an acute hospital bed.
“I’m particularly pleased that the CQC highlighted a culture of openness and honesty throughout all levels of the organisation and were impressed with the care and compassion of our teams.
“We recognise the areas for improvement raised by the CQC and we are developing focused action plans to improve safety and efficiency. We are working with our teams and system colleagues to reduce operational pressures and we are absolutely determined to improve.
“We are pleased that inspectors recognised the range of quality improvement projects happening on our medical wards, despite the many pressures we face, and staff were focused on providing the highest quality care possible.”
The full 22-page CQC report can be found here Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital – Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)