Peterborough: Hospital 'Needs To Improve'
16 May 2014, 07:09 | Updated: 16 May 2014, 07:15
The Health Watchdog say the trust running Peterborough City Hospital, 'requires improvements'.
It follows the latest inspection by the Care Quality Comission, in March 2014.
However, six out of eight services inspected have been rated as 'good'.
The service areas of surgery, intensive/critical care, maternity, children's care, end of life care and the outpatients department all demonstrated consistently good care for patients.
Two other service areas of accident and emergency and medical care were rated by inspectors as 'requiring improvement'.
Both Peterborough City Hospital and Stamford Hospital were inspected in March 2014, in the second wave of new-style CQC inspections which provide a much more detailed picture of the quality of care provided in hospitals than ever before.
All three service areas provided at Stamford Hospital were rated as 'good'.
The Trust as a whole was rated as 'requiring improvement' however inspectors commended staff at both hospitals for providing caring services and concluded that the Trust was well led.
As a result of the inspection, previous compliance actions relating to addressing staffing levels, care planning and documentation were lifted and it was deemed that all essential standards of quality and safety are being met at both hospitals.
Inspectors also highlighted particular areas of good practice across both hospitals.
These included a 'joint school' for patients having hip or knee surgery which aims to improve the recovery process; a debrief session for women following the delivery of their baby; additional services provided to relatives by the Trust¡¦s mortuary and bereavement team; work undertaken in intensive care to reduce instances of ventilator-acquired pneumonia; and a new system for ward information management pioneered at Stamford Hospital.
Chris Wilkinson, director of care quality and chief nurse at Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We welcome this report and it is great to see that the efforts of our staff to ensure patients experience good care in our hospitals is paying off. We were inspected as a low risk organisation, and this report gives us the momentum to try to develop those good service areas into outstanding ones for the future.
"Prior to the inspection, work had already begun on a detailed action plan picking up areas noted where improvements should be made. The medical and emergency departments present the greatest challenges for our Trust, as they are consistently under pressure from a growing number of older and more unwell patients. To combat this, we are actively recruiting to nursing and medical posts, and to managerial roles, to support these departments further. In addition we are focussing on our processes around discharging patients which involves working with our health and social care partners across the five local authority areas in the Trust's catchment area.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff at both hospitals for their consistent dedication to patient care and the way they embraced the new-style inspection process. I hope we can soon report good, or better, ratings across the board for our hospitals."