Claremont Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Shared direction and culture
• Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
• Freedom to speak up
• Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
• Governance, management and sustainability
• Partnerships and communities
• Learning, improvement and innovation

The service had an inclusive and positive culture of continuous learning and improvement that was based on meeting the needs of people who used services and wider communities.

There were effective governance systems and processes in place to monitor outcomes and patient safety, lessons learned were disseminated at a local and national level.

The service had capable and compassionate inclusive leaders, the teams had a hospital huddle each day where all departments were represented, and any concerns were escalated. During the huddle they also recognised any staff who had been nominated as going above and beyond for colleagues or patients.

Staff we spoke to were positive about the leadership culture across the organisation, they said senior leaders were visible and accessible, and they had support from their immediate line managers.

There was a management programme in place for managers and aspiring managers and staff told us they had been encouraged to attend. The service had a talent management framework which they had incorporated into the appraisal process.

This service scored 75 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service had a clear strategy and vision and had engaged staff in these through listening events. Staff we spoke with were positive about the service; they felt included in changes and could offer suggestions to improve services. The previous staff survey had indicated some staff dissatisfaction mostly relating to service management, however staff we spoke with were now much happier working in the organisation. Some staff had felt that the hospital had become very policy focused as the new parent provider was integrating policies across the organisation. They said they understood this was required as part of the governance process.

There was an open culture and staff sought support across the hospital departments and worked together on quality improvement projects. The outpatient’s staff were working with the ward staff on a discharge project.

Staff, including clinical and support staff, we spoke with liked working at the hospital and had positive experiences throughout the location.

Staff had worked there for varying amounts of time, but all reported similar experiences of good team working and described it as a family.

There were positive working relationships between clinical and support staff across in the outpatient department that included a diverse workforce.

Staff were supported to learn and develop and were appraised annually and said they now had more access to learning and development opportunities.

Managers and leaders at the service had the relevant skills and abilities to manage the services effectively. They understood the risks to the services and had clear oversight on safety, governance and performance issues through daily involvement and quality monitoring. There were succession plans in place for key roles such as head of departments and directors.

For our detailed findings please see the capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders section in the surgery report.

The service had a culture where staff said they could speak up, there were freedom to speak up (FTSUG) posters in the clinical areas. Staff knew who the FTSUG was, and they said they would be confident speaking up to senior staff.

The provider had a workforce race equality standard (WRES) Action Plan 2024-2025. There were 5 actions regarding WRES data and most actions had been completed. This included the improvement of diversity data and self-reporting by ethnicity, other diversity information and protected characteristics.

Staff we spoke to felt valued and were able to offer their ideas to improve the service.

The service had a clear governance structure with an ongoing audit programme in place. Audit results were shared and acted on by the department and managers with action plans in place. The hospital had a comprehensive dashboard for performance indicators which was updated quarterly and shared with the team, this was benchmarked against other Spire hospitals.

The outpatients and physiotherapy manager both attended the heads of department and governance meetings which gave them oversight of risk at a corporate and departmental level.

We saw senior staff receiving information from the daily hospital huddle where any daily risks and actions were shared.

The highest departmental risk identified was the lack of space in physiotherapy which prevented them from increasing clinic capacity. The department was currently awaiting refurbishment to create a better clinical environment for the team.

The referral to treatment (RTT) team had a tracker system in place which provided oversight of waiting times which was reviewed by the management team weekly, they also met with the local trust. Patients waiting longer had tended to have more complex needs and had been referred to other teams during the pathway.

There was regular communication and oversight from the corporate provider. The senior management team and departmental leads told us how they reported governance, performance and risks to the corporate provider. The senior and departmental managers participated in regular peer meetings to share learning and benchmarking with the provider's other hospitals across the region and nationally.

Practising privileges were reviewed and authorised by the Hospital Director and Director of Clinical Services, and were also reviewed at the Medical Advisory Committee.

The service understood their duty to collaborate. They worked in partnership with the local system including the Integrated Care Board (ICB) NHS trust and the local safeguarding board which enabled them to respond to the needs of the local health population.

The RTT team worked with the local NHS trust to identify patients who could be appropriately treated at the hospital to support the trust to shorten waiting times for NHS patients.

The physiotherapy department had recently presented to local GPs to promote the therapies they could offer to the local community. The team had undertaken further training to offer hand therapy, electric wave therapy and acupuncture. These therapies offered a wider scope to patients.

The hospital had supported the local community by providing charitable donations and training. For example, following a mortality in the local ice hockey league they had donated 2 first aid kits for every team in the league and first aid training.

Spire group had a quality improvement strategy, which included the outpatients department collaboration with the inpatient team on patient discharge.

The physiotherapy team had developed the service through access to extended education programmes. They had developed an acupuncture service, and the hand therapy physiotherapist was able to make bespoke splints on site.

The introduction of the arthroplasty role enabled the service to deliver a physiotherapy led outpatient’s service. This had enabled continuity of care and prevented cancellation of follow up appointments when there was lack of consultant availability.

The joint school facilitated by the physiotherapy team gave an opportunity for patients who had joint replacement surgery to regain confidence and improve their postoperative recovery.