We did it! Thank you! We're out of special measures
After three years, our Trust has left special measures.
We want to say a huge thank you to all our staff, volunteers, partners, and patients who have made this happen.
A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection at the end of last year found evidence of significant and transformational improvement at Queen’s and King George Hospitals.
As a result, the CQC made a recommendation, endorsed by NHS Improvement, that our Trust be removed from special measures. We were placed in special measures in December 2013.
The inspection team found that every one of the four core services being assessed as part of the targeted inspection had shown significant improvement across the five domains it measures – safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. These were seen across both Queen’s and King George Hospitals.
There are now no domains rated as inadequate across our Trust.
We were re-inspected in 2015 - see the improvements we’ve made since then
Our chair, Dr Maureen Dalziel, said: “On behalf of the Board, I’d like to thank our staff, volunteers and patients, but also our partners in the community.
“It has been a long journey, and while there is still much to do, I believe that our hospitals are safer, more caring places than when I joined. I’m pleased to see the progress which is being recognised today, particularly around our governance and leadership.”
Chief Executive, Matthew Hopkins added: “I have always believed in the huge desire and passion of our staff to deliver outstanding care to this community. It is evident to me every single day in our hospitals, so I am delighted it was clearly evident to the CQC team too, as this very positive report shows.
“While this inspection only focused on four services, the picture it paints reflects progress across the Trust: ensuring patients are at the centre of everything we do. It’s a proud day for everyone involved with the Trust.”
Two services, Children and Young People, and Outpatients and Diagnostic Imaging, received special praise.
Services for Children and Young People is now rated Good overall, with Good ratings across four of the five domains. There was particular acknowledgement for our work with neonatal and community teams for providing babies with oxygen home therapy.
The work of our dedicated paediatric learning disability nurse in improving our care for young patients, was also praised, after receiving very good feedback from parents.
Alison Dean, our Safeguarding Children Advisor who leads the latter workstream, said: “I am proud that the hard work and accomplishments of the learning disability team have been recognised by the CQC.
“We are fortunate to have trained learning disability nurses for both children and adults. We believe it is a valued service which puts our Trust at the forefront for making our hospitals accessible to people with learning disabilities.
“Our clinical areas have embraced our initiatives, and we are so happy to have had positive feedback from families and carers, who comment on the visible changes within our Trust.”
Alison also paid tribute to the fantastic work and support that she has had from colleague, Heather Woollard: “The results that have been achieved for paediatrics would not have been possible without the hard work and mentoring Heather has continued to conscientiously mentor and advise. It has ensured the success of the development of a new service for paediatrics.”