In October Wye Valley NHS Trust welcomed a team of inspectors from the Care Quality Commission to Hereford County Hospital for an unannounced inspection.
These types of inspection are part of the CQC’s routine inspection regime and was focused on particular areas following findings of a full inspection carried out in 2019.
The good news for patients is that the inspectors found improvements have taken place and they have upgraded the “inadequate” ratings to “requires improvement” in the safety, well led and overall domains for surgery.
“It’s not an end in itself,” said Jane Ives, WVT managing director, “as there is still work to do, but it confirms our ambitions to be an NHS Trust which is rated “Good” overall in the coming years,” she added.
During the inspection, inspectors visited all wards in medicine and surgery including older people’s care, plus theatres and daycase unit.
The focus of the inspectors was on the safety domain in medicine and surgery and the well-led (how the division is being managed) domains in surgery.
While the “requires improvement” rating for medicine remains unchanged, the “Inadequate” ratings in surgery were lifted in safety and well-led, being replaced with “requires improvement” ratings.
In its report, the team of inspectors noted that the service had enough staff to keep patients safe, staff had received training and understood how to protect patients from abuse.
The hospital was also commended on the way it controlled infection risk well.
The inspection team were pleased to note that staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focussed on the needs of patients receiving care.
“Our staff are our strength, and it was good to hear that the inspectors conclude that staff felt respected, supported and valued,” said Jane.
In its report, the inspectors listed less than ten “must do” requirements, some of which were easy to fix and have been addressed already, and for the remainder the Trust already has detailed improvement plans in place.
“We are an ambitious Trust and this report signals another positive step on our journey to provide the kind of quality service for local people that we want to provide for our family and friends.
“We’re addressing the issues that need to be tackled and we look forward to welcoming back the inspectors in the future to capture our further improvement work,” said Jane.
