Chief Inspector of Hospitals publishes his findings on the London Welbeck Hospital, Marylebone

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has published his findings on the standards of treatment and care provided by the London Welbeck Hospital, Marylebone, following a Care Quality Commission inspection in October.

The hospital, in Welbeck Street, is one of the first independent hospitals to be inspected under CQC’s new methodology which asks whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well led.

Findings from the inspection have been published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-114202293.

CQC found that staff were caring and treated patients and their relatives with dignity and respect. Patients who spoke to inspectors were positive about their care and treatment.

Admissions were organised in a timely way which led to minimal delays for patients, and where complaints had been made these had been handled in a timely way. Staff were encouraged to develop professionally, and staff spoke positively about the support they received from management.
CQC also found, however, that the hospital was not monitoring outcomes for patients who had undergone elective surgery. Procedures and treatments were not reviewed against national clinical guidelines, and while patients received information about their treatment there was no evidence that this was referenced to best practice.

The provider, Welbeck Health Care Limited, did not have a documented vision and clinical strategy to support innovation and the growth of the service.

CQC identified two areas where the trust must make improvements:

• The hospital must ensure there are arrangements in place for the care of level one patients and ensure all staff are aware of these arrangements.
• The hospital must consider the risks of anaesthetic assistants drawing up anaesthetic drugs before the theatre list commences, taking into account best practice.

CQC also identified an area of outstanding practice. Inspectors noted that the quality of the hospital’s response to patient complaints was of a high standard.

CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:

“People deserve to receive treatment and care which is safe, effective, caring, responsive to their needs, and well led.

“When we inspected the London Welbeck Hospital, we saw that staff were caring and compassionate in their dealings with patients, and patients praised the treatment and care that they received. We also, saw, however, that some improvements were needed.

“We will return in due course to check that those improvements have been made.”