Department numbers Hospital map Parking Visiting times
Home
News

 

Latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report for The Queen Elizabeth Hospital recognises improvements

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn

Manjit Obhrai, Interim Chief Executive at Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Foundations Trust, said: “In the 9 months since the Trust was placed into Special Measures, we have made significant progress and this has been recognised by the CQC in their latest inspection report following their site visit in July 2014.

The CQC saw many examples of good practice, particularly within critical care and paediatrics. They were especially complimentary of our staff who are proud to work at the Trust highlighting their commitment to delivering compassionate care and respecting the needs of our patients. They also reported widespread support for the style and influence of the leadership.

In respect of the 4 warning notices 8 breaches the CQC highlighted in its previous report in 2013 the Trust is now compliant with 3 of the 4 warnings and 7 of the 8 breaches.

The CQC, during its visit in July 2014, did also identify areas of ongoing concern.

Management of medical outliers, which refers to medical patients who have to be admitted to surgical beds due to the lack of medical beds.

The cancellation of surgical patients as a consequence of the issue above.

Our failure to comply fully with one of the warning notices, relating to safeguarding

And observed that the embedding the new governance structure was still at an early stage of implementation.

Since the CQC inspection took place in July we have continued to address areas highlighted for quality improvement and have made further progress:

We have already addressed the concerns around the outstanding actions related to the safeguarding warning notice by employing a trainer and have now have two trained staff on duty daily.

We have initiated a targeted programme to improve operational performance. This started with our Emergency department and has resulted the delivery of the 95% of our patients being seen and treated within 4 hours for a number of consecutive weeks. This in turn has had the effect of reducing our medical outliers and improving our surgical performance with a very significant reduction in cancelled operations.

As an added benefit this programme has also helped us to support our staff by providing a less stressful environment and enabling them to do their jobs more effectively.

We continue to work on remodelling medical and nursing workforce to improve patient care and have already commissioned an external review of our governance system to provide the assurance to ensure it is sustainably embedded across the whole Trust.

“Although we have made significant improvements since the CQC visit we are not complacent and need to continue to work hard on the areas of concern raised by the CQC. I have every confidence in our excellent workforce to raise to the challenge and continue the improvement programme.”

We are grateful for the on-going support of Monitor, our regulator, to ensure these longer term organisational behaviours and operational delivery are strongly embedded in the culture of the Trust.

Edward Libbey, Trust Chair added “I would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of hospital staff in maintaining business continuity and keeping patients safe throughout what was clearly a very intense inspection period.

“I remain impressed by the significant improvements made and the leaders who have joined the Trust in the past 12 months, making a positive impact, something the report does recognise along with compassion and respectful care across all of our services. Whilst we have certainly turned a corner, I, the Trust Board, the senior management team and staff are committed to making all the necessary improvements so that our patients can have access to the high quality care they deserve. There is no quick fix solution for King’s Lynn and we recognise that systems and processes need time to become fully embedded but we will continue to ensure that improvements have a firm grounding and can be maintained long term.

“We are committed to working with the CQC to continue to improve our patient experience, ensuring that it is safe, responsive and well led. I would like to thank our staff, patients, local community, partner organisations and MPs for their unwavering support throughout our journey so far in what has been the most challenging year in the hospital’s history”.

19/09/2014

Adam Jackson, for The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Trust