England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust as Good following inspections by the Care Quality Commission.
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust provides a range of inpatient and community mental health services to adults, older people and children.
Between 2 October and 2 November 2017, a team of CQC inspectors visited the trust’s acute wards for adults of working age, wards for older people with mental health problems, wards for people with learning disabilities, long stay rehabilitation mental health wards for adults, specialist community mental health services for children and young people and community-based mental health services for adults.
Inspectors rated the care provided by staff to be Good regarding whether services were effective, caring, responsive and well-led and rated it as Requires Improvement regarding whether services were safe.
The overall culture of the trust was very patient-centred. Staff treated patients with dignity, respect and compassion and most experienced high morale and motivation for their work.
There had been significant improvement in the reduction of waiting lists in the child and adolescent mental health services and the adult community mental health services since the last CQC inspection. All teams were meeting the national waiting time standards.
Deputy Chief Inspector for Hospitals (lead for mental health), Paul Lelliott, said:
“Overall, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust provides good care to the large population that it serves. The trust can be proud of many of the services that it manages."
“We found staff to be dedicated, kind, caring and patient focused. The local management and leadership of services were both knowledgeable and visible. Staff we talked to during inspection spoke highly of their managers and told us that a more positive and open culture had continued to develop since our last inspection."
“We were particularly impressed by the level of care offered to patients in the long stay and rehabilitation wards and the community based mental health services for older people, both of which were rated Outstanding overall."
“North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is a large organisation where all its core services have been rated as Good or Outstanding overall. However, we found some services where improvement could be made. The trust has told us they have listened to our inspectors’ findings and we are confident that the executive team, with the support of their staff, will work to deliver these improvements on behalf of all of their patients. We will return in due course to check on the progress that they have made.”
Full details of the ratings, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published on our website.
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The trust can be proud of many of the services that it manages
Paul Lelliott, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health)