First report published on The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, has published his first report on the quality of services provided by The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The Care Quality Commission has found that the trust provided services that were caring, however, improvements were needed in the safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership of some services.

The inspection took place in July, the CQC used its new inspection regime. 

Pinderfields Hospital, Pontefract Hospital and Dewsbury District Hospital were each rated as Requires Improvement, although critical care at both Pinderfields Hospital and Dewsbury District Hospital was rated as Good. The trust’s Community Health services were also rated as Good, however Safety across the trust was rated as Inadequate. 

Inspectors found that most patients were positive about the care they received and staff were thought to be polite, patient and caring. Inspectors also found some examples of outstanding practice, particularly within the children’s community end of life team who demonstrated compassion and commitment to families.

Inspectors identified some areas of outstanding practice, including:

• The multidisciplinary team approach in community services for adults with complex needs.
• The implementation of a link health visitor role in community services.
• The compassion and commitment demonstrated by the staff within the children’s community end of life care team (Jigsaw).
• The support provided to patients following discharge from the critical care unit by the set-up of monthly outpatient clinics.

There were also a number of areas of poor practice where the trust needed to make improvements, including:

• The trust must ensure there are always sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff to deliver safe care in a timely manner.
• The trust must take action to address the backlog of outpatient appointments, including follow-ups, to ensure patients are not waiting considerable amounts of time for their appointment.
• The skills and experience of staff working with children in the A&E departments, special care baby unit and children’s outpatients’ clinics must be reviewed to ensure the trust is meeting national and best practice recommendations.
• The trust must ensure the procedures for documenting the involvement of patients and relatives in ‘Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNA CPR) are in accordance with best practice at all times.
• The trust must ensure staff are trained and competent with medication storage, handling and administration, and that controlled drugs are administered, stored and disposed of in accordance with trust policy, national guidance and legislation.
• The trust must review the arrangements over the oversight of Gate 20 acute respiratory care unit to ensure there is appropriate critical care medical oversight in accordance with the Critical Care Core Standards (2013).
• The trust must ensure ambulance handover target times are achieved to lessen the detrimental impact on patients.
• The trust must ensure the high prevalence of pressure ulcers is reviewed and understood and appropriate actions are implemented to address the issue.

The full reports are available on the CQC website here.

If you are a healthcare professional and would like help with CQC documentation, visit the Words Worth Reading Ltd team to find out how we can help you. 

Source: www.cqc.org.uk

Image: Ricardodiaz11, Flickr