Health trust welcomes mixed report from watchdog
AN NHS organisation that serves Halton residents has said it has ‘ welcomed’ the findings of a watchdog inspection report that gave it a performance grading of ‘requires improvement’.
Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said it had now taken steps to strengthen its services since the inspection took place eight months ago.
The Care Quality Commission gave the organisation an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’ and that same ranking in the main categories of safety, effectiveness and leadership.
It was graded ‘good’ in the ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ measures.
Across all 40 subcategories it had out ‘outstanding’, 27 ‘good’ and 12 of ‘requires improvement’.
Concerns raised in the report included inconsistencies over management of risk, urgent care centre triage systems and the reporting of incidents.
The CQC said better access was needed for resuscitation trolleys at clinics in Runcorn and that district nurse records in Widnes were of a ‘poor standard’.
It reported that there were no emergency call bells, no oxygen or suction equipment in the maternity clinical area at Halton General Hospital and said some district nursing teams in Halton were based in general practitioner clinics and had ‘poor’ facilities.
Urgent care training levels in the borough were also below the trust’s mandatory level.
However, the inspectors reported good quality care in many areas and reported that patients had said ‘care was delivered with kindness and compassion’ and that 97% of patients said they would recommend services to friends and family.
The report said that an end-of-life care lead has been appointed since the inspection to plug a gap in strategy for such healthcare.
The CQC visit was the first full inspection carried out by the CQC at the trust, although a summary inspection took place in 2014.
Inspectors said they had seen improvements in culture and staffing since that inspection.
Several services were highlighted as providing ‘outstanding healthcare practice’, including the community matron services for adults in Wigan, systems to avoid hospital admissions through urgent care centres, Bolton’s Parallel service for young people and an end of life care specialist team that includes support of therapists. Inpatient units were also rated as outstanding for caring.
The trust provides healthcare for 831,270 residents in Halton, Warrington, St Helens, Bolton, Oldham, Trafford and Wigan.
Colin Scales, Bridgewater trust chief executive, said: “I’m proud and delighted that the inspectors have rated our services as caring without exception and that the report has highlighted the compassion and dedication of our staff and the difference they make providing care to patients every day. ●
“I’m really pleased they have been publicly recognised for this and that our outstanding clinical practice has attracted the praise it deserves.
“We’ve matured as an organisation since our establishment in 2011 and have a new chief nurse and medical director who will be focusing on improving and developing our diverse services across the region.
“Our commitment is to ensure that our standards are high across each and every service and that we move on a journey towards being a trust that is rated as good and then outstanding.
“All the essential actions the CQC has asked us look at have already been addressed since the inspectors were on site, so we’ve made a lot of progress and are in a stronger position now as we move forward.”