Two bits of good news

The first bit of good news is that the Royal Surrey is one of five hospitals shortlisted for the CHKS Top Hospi­tals programme patient safety award 2014. The CHKS Top Hospitals awards celebrate the success of healthcare providers and are given to acute organisa­tions for their achievements in healthcare quality and improvement.

CHKS has 25 years of experience in the analysis of hospital data and the RSCH is one on many hospitals which uses them for data analysis. Awards are made on the basis of an analysis of over 20 publicly available datasets including hospital acquired infections, mortality, emergency readmissions after critical operations. Every NHS acute trust in the UK is included.

Results will be announced at the CHKS Top Hospitals programme awards event in London on 13th May.

The second bit of good news is that Royal Surrey’s Wisley and Ewhurst wards are two of five hospital wards to become the first in the country to receive an Elder Friendly Quality Mark in recognition of the sup­port staff give to older people.   The Quality Mark is run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was developed in part­nership with organisations including Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Nurs­ing and British Geriatrics Society. It has been established to encourage hospital wards to become involved in improving the quality of essential care of older people and to recog­nise good care provision, as identified by patient feedback.

Eye Clinic Good News

The hospital Board has approved the Business Case for a new Eye clinic. This is good news. Building work will start in the Summer and, although this will cause some inconvenience, all should be completed by the end of the year. The new clinic will involve filling  in the open courtyard to the left of the existing area to create more consulting rooms and rooms for eye tests and a much expanded and better waiting area. There will be more nurses and support staff and another consultant. When I was elected a governor the first thing I did was visit the Eye Clinic and talk to patients because I knew the conditions and the length of waits were unacceptable. I wrote a report to the Chief Executive at that time and so I am particularly pleased to see that this poor service to patients is being so positively addressed. Meanwhile the hospital continues to try and improve services within existing conditions and patients tell me that things are better.

The hospital. is to hold a series of Patient Forums for the Eye Clinic to keep everybody up to speed. The first, which I attended on 27 March, was very good. There was not a good turn out from patients but hopefully that will change to reward the staff for their efforts.

Palliative Care

The Royal Surrey palliative care team won the "Multidisciplinary Teamwork Award" at the International Journal of Palliative Nursing Awards in 2012. Now the team have also been short-listed (i.e. are in the top three) for the "Innovation Award" at the International Journal of Palliative Nursing Awards in 2014. A great tribute to a great team.

Also The Royal Surrey/St Lukes has achieved the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) accreditation as a "Designated Centre for Integrated Oncology & Supportive Care". Currently there are only 7 such accredited centres in the UK.

 Hospital gets grant to improve maternity facilities

The Royal Surrey has been successful in a bid for money from the Department of Health to improve the ‘birthing environment’ at the hospital.

The grant, worth £508,000, will be used to complete the refurbishment of the delivery suite and to build en-suite facilities in all rooms. The money will also enable an upgrade of the current high dependency unit (HDU) with improved facilities for partners to stay.

In addition, the hospital will add a new high risk area for ladies with complex needs who want a home-from-home environment, with the availability of a birthing pool, but in the safety of a fully equipped delivery suite.

All good news for an area where the recent Care Quality Commission report found to be outstanding.

Care Quality Commission trial ratings

As a result of the Mid Staffs debacle the Care Quality Commission revamped its inspections making them longer, more detailed and with more clinical inspectors. They tested out the new regime in a number of hospitals including the Royal Surrey: see my blog of 18 December. The resulting report was generally good with some areas needing attention.

The CQC intends to publish ratings for all hospitals over the next year or so. So, from those 18 who were subject to the test inspections, the CQC sought volunteers to be trial rated. Royal Surrey agreed and the trial ratings have just been published. They are below.

   

	Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
		Safe	Effective	Caring	Responsive	Well Led	Overall
	Accident & Emergency	G	UA	G	G	G	G
	Medicine	RI	G	G	G	G	G
	Surgery	G	G	G	G	G	G
	Critical Care	G	G	G	G	G	G
	Maternity & Family Planning	G	G	O	G	O	G
	Paediatrics	G	G	G	O	G	G
	End of Life	G	G	G	G	G	G
	Outpatients	G	UA	G	RI	RI	RI
	Overall	G	G	G	G	G	G

 

The ratings are Outstanding (O), Good (G), Requires improvement (RI), Inadequate and Unassessed (UA).

The Royal surrey was thus overall rated Good for all aspects of care.

Outpatients was the main area requiring improvement with the Eye Clinic being particularly criticised (see some of my earlier blogs. A Business Case to rebuild the Eye Clinic is due to be presented to the Board at its next meeting and hopefully, at last, work will start to create a clinic for which the hospital can be proud.

Checks on cleanliness and maintenance

 I coordinate a team of Governors who undertake checks on cleanliness, maintenance, hygiene etc. (see earlier blog). In the last 5 months we have checked

·         Out Patients 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10

·         Patients Lounge, front entrance and main corridor including WCs

·         Radiology including X-ray, ultrasound, CT, Interventional Suite

·         EAU (Emergency Assessment Unit)

·         Short Stay Surgery and Elective Surgery

·         Physiotherapy

·         Phototherapy

·         Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy

·         HASTE and MRI

·         Day Surgery

·         Nuclear Medicine

 

Whereas we have found some areas where cleaning needs to be improved, where maintenance attention is required and where clutter was unacceptable, overall the checks have shown all features to be pretty good and some departments to be excellent and believe me we look for dust and dirt in every corner! Our reports are sent to senior staff responsible for all these aspects and are taken very seriously with follow up action which we intend to check. The hospital has made clear that it appreciates what we are doing and that is good.

 

 

Care Quality Commission Report on hospital inspection published

 The CQC Report on their inspection of the RSCH was published today. It was very good. Staff can be proud to have been found caring, inclusive, open and skilled in what they do. The CQC were in receipt of some adverse comments of course but overwhelmingly patients and the public were complimentary. Maternity and Children’s services were found to be particularly good.

On the down side there was criticism of staffing levels on some wards and some OP services were deemed in need of improvement. The Eye Clinic was the focus of particular criticism and in terms of patient experience (not clinical outcomes) was seen as not fit for purpose. This was no surprise – see my earlier blogs. The hospital does have in hand draft plans to rebuild the Clinic and has been working hard to improve matters but the CQC felt that the pace needed to be accelerated.

Overall a good and reassuring result from the CQC’s new and very intense inspection regime.