Royal Hospital celebrates ‘Good’ rating from Quality Care Commission
More than 3,700 staff make up the team at Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and they’re celebrating today (May 17 2017) – with the fantastic news that their hospital has been awarded a ‘GOOD’ rating from the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.
This means the Royal is one of 52 out of 174 acute NHS trusts nationally to have achieved ‘green’ in each of the five domains the Care Quality Commission (CQC) used to rate an NHS organisation.
The result follows a plan of improvement that staff across the hospital have worked on since the CQC’s initial visit in 2015, when it was given a ‘requires improvement’ rating for some aspects of its services.
Simon Morritt, Chief Executive of the Royal, explains:-
“There are thousands of individuals working here to provide high-quality patient care and services. Everyone one of them plays a vital role as part of a 3,700 strong team. This rating is their success and we are absolutely delighted for them. Through their commitment and support they’ve taken positive action to make a difference – and have proved our hospital deserves to be ‘GOOD’. I congratulate and thank all of them for the contribution they have made to this result.”
Professor Sir Mike Richards, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said:-
“Overall, Chesterfield Royal Hospital provides good care to the population that it serves. Since our inspection in April 2015, the trust has made significant improvements to ensure there was a positive culture change and they’ve had a focus on wanting to improve the quality and safety of the care being delivered to patients.”
In its report about the hospital the CQC highlights the fact that staff teams and the Board of Directors invite patients in to the hospital to talk about their first-hand experiences (good and bad) – in order to help improve care and services and share good practice. These stories have had a real impact – helping teams and directors to see care differently and from the patients’ perspective. New ways of working, changes to clinical practice and better patient information are just some examples of how listening to patients in this way leads to positive improvements.
The report also commends the hospital for its leadership – and describes how people work together effectively, with a clear vision of what they want the hospital to achieve, as well as understanding what risks the organisation faces.
There was one particular area the Care Quality Commission wanted to see improve – and that was the response rate and results of the hospital’s national NHS Staff Survey.
Mr Morritt says:-
“We completely agree with this recommendation.
“We not only want to be known for providing great care to patients, but as a great place for our staff to work – and we are already working to make sure this happens. Staff concerns about some parts of our leadership structure, about having the ability to act on ideas and about having the ability to speak our freely are being addressed. Over the next few months we’ll see a huge push on staff engagement so everyone has the opportunity to contribute their ideas to improved patient care.”
“We hope staff feel proud that they have been responsible for taking Chesterfield Royal Hospital from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘GOOD’. It brings our Trust’s ambition to achieve the CQC’s ‘outstanding’ rating one step closer – and with their continued support we will get there.”
