Ratings Boost for Local Hospitals After New Inspection
Services improved at Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea
Four local hospitals within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have received ratings boosts, with maternity units at Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea in White City and St Mary's in Paddington both judged 'outstanding' by inspectors.
This is the first ever outstanding rating for a maternity unit in London. This new rating - improved from 'good' in the last inspection in 2014 - means that Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea, in Du Cane Road, which specialises in maternity, women's and neonatal care, has also become the first of the Trust's hospitals to be rated 'outstanding' overall.
The hospital's neonatal services also received a boost, being judged ‘good’, an improvement from ‘requires improvement’ in 2014.
There were also improved ratings for critical care services at Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals, both being upgraded from 'requires improvement' in 2014 to 'good' in this latest inspections.
Children and young people services at Hammersmith Hospital also improved to 'good'from 'requires improvement' in 2014
The new ratings came after inspectors from the Care Quality Commission, or CQC, inspected a range of services across the Trust's hospitals in February this year.
A full list of overall ratings for services at each site that were inspected by the CQC in February 2019, compared with their previous inspection of these services, are as follows:
• Critical care at Charing Cross – ‘good’, an improvement from ‘requires improvement’ in 2014
• Critical care at Hammersmith – ‘good’, an improvement from ‘requires improvement’ in 2014
• Children and young people services at Hammersmith Hospital – ‘good’, an improvement from ‘requires improvement’ in 2014
• Maternity at Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea – ‘outstanding’, an improvement from ‘good’ in 2014
• Children and young people services St Mary’s – ‘good’, the same rating as 2014
• Critical care at St Mary’s – ‘good’, the same rating as 2014
• Maternity at St Mary’s – ‘outstanding’, an improvement from ‘requires improvement’ in 2017
• Neonatal services at Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea – ‘good’, an improvement from ‘requires improvement’ in 2014
While Queen Charlotte’s & Chelsea is now rated 'outstanding', the other hospitals, and the Trust overall – will stay at their current ratings until further services have been inspected.
In 2014, both Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals were judged 'requires improvement'. However, the CQC says is it now carrying out a review of both hospitals, and will publish the new ratings when the review is complete.
The Care Quality Commission has also improved its rating for how 'well-led' Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is overall following a separate inspection in April 2019 – up from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.
In addition, NHS Improvement inspected how well the Trust uses its resources to provide high quality and sustainable care for patients for the first time in February 2019 and has given a rating of 'good'.
The Trust's chief executive Professor Tim Orchard, said: " I’m delighted that inspectors have recognised the real progress we have made, both in terms of the quality of care we offer as well as the way our organisation is led.
" We have much more we want and need to do but this is fantastic news for our staff, partners and patients and reflects a huge amount of hard work and commitment.
" I’m also pleased that inspectors recognised the additional challenges, in terms of the age and state of many of our buildings, that our staff are overcoming in order to provide high quality care.
"Our teams have to work extra hard to make sure our poor facilities don’t impact too much on our patients but this is not a sustainable situation. The CQC report will help us build our case for a major redevelopment of our estate.
" In the meantime, we’re focusing as much resource as we can, and working with partners like Imperial Health Charity, on making improvements that will improve the experience for our patients, visitors and staff.
"The outstanding practice highlighted by the CQC acts as a showcase for how we are responding to the changing needs and expectations of our patients and staff. It includes some great examples of how we are integrating care, adopting new technologies and involving patients as partners.
" I’m really excited for what more we will be able to achieve with and for our patients and local communities – and to our next CQC inspection where we have another opportunity to share more progress."
The CQC's full report can be viewed on their website.
August 14, 2019