Below is our response to the publication of a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report which follows an unannounced inspection that took place between 6 and 9 January 2025. Inspectors visited 21 of our acute adult and psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) wards across eight locations.
As a result, the services above remained at a rating of requires improvement. Inspectors looked at specific themes, with the ‘well-led’ domain improving from requires improvement to good. ‘Caring’ and ‘responsive’ also stayed at good. ‘Safe’ and ‘effective’ remained at requires improvement.
Following the inspection announcement, our Chief Executive Officer, Chris Oliver, said:
“We thank the CQC for completing their inspection and sharing their findings with us, which we have prioritised, implementing changes as soon as they fed back to us and in the relatively short time since their visit.
It was great to hear some of the positive elements of the findings, including that patients and family members were generally positive about the service. They felt able to raise any concerns, with most patients saying they felt safe and that many of our colleagues were kind and supportive.
They also noted that colleagues knew how to recognise people at risk of or suffering harm, working with other agencies to protect them, and that they reported serious incidents clearly. Additionally, new protocols have been implemented on an inspected ward to improve discharge procedures, we are ensuring physical health recording after the administration of rapid tranquilisation, blood clot risk assessments are taking place and clozapine monitoring is being completed. These are just some of the improvements made.
The safe and effective care of our patients is of utmost importance to us, and we acknowledge how staffing levels, as raised in the CQC’s report, does have an impact. We have been working hard to fill vacancies and address staffing shortfalls, which is a concern across the NHS and have seen an increase in people, including the recruitment of over 90 registered nurses throughout the past year within our inpatient wards and turnover is now the lowest on record. This does however remain an on-going area of focus for us.
In our last Trust-wide CQC inspection in 2024, we were rated good overall, where we remain. We acknowledged then that we were not complacent in that achievement, we are a learning organisation and recognise there is much underway, as has been recognised by the CQC, but still more to do as we continue to progress on our improvement journey.
We want to continue to offer an excellent service, with patients at the heart and we are also ambitious in our aims to improve health, offering the best care, while helping our colleagues take joy in pride in their work.
We remain fully committed to delivering the best for our patients, carers and families.”
