HCA Healthcare UK The Harborne Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

Caring – this means we looked for evidence that the provider involved people and treated them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

This is the first assessment for this newly registered service. This key question has been rated Good. This meant people were supported and treated with dignity and respect; and involved as partners in their care

We have not awarded this service a score for Caring.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Caring.

Staff treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion. Patient feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We saw and heard patients and their loved ones being treated with kindness and respect. Staff involved families and loved ones in the care of patients living with cancer. They respected patients’ privacy and dignity. Patients had single rooms and family were allowed to stay if they needed to. Staff knocked on doors prior to entering rooms where the doors were closed. We saw this occur and the member of staff slipped into the room discretely to ensure that the patient was “decent” for us to speak with. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect. We witnessed this respect when we reviewed the radiotherapy service which was run by a contractor to the service.

Staff considered the patient as a whole and if the service could not meet their needs they referred patients to the most appropriate service. This included other cancer support services such as Macmillan and community nursing.

The service treated people as individuals and made sure people’s care, support and treatment met people’s needs and preferences. Staff made adjustments for patients including meeting patients’ individual mobility and communication needs. Staff in all departments had access to an IT platform where information could be downloaded in a variety of formats to suit individuals needs. We saw that consultants often explained treatment pathways to patients sometimes drawing diagrams to help with what they were planning for treatment. There was access to a telephone interpretation service however, the service had not required this for patients it had treated. There was a choice of food to meet the dietary requirements of religious and ethnic groups and to account for allergies and intolerances. Staff took account of people’s strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics. Whilst long stay patients were rare on the ward when this did happen staff were able to adapt to meet individual’s needs. Staff on the chemotherapy day unit were aware of individual preferences of their patients who came in regularly for treatment.

People were supported to have choice and control over their own care and to make decisions, where appropriate, about their care, treatment and wellbeing. Staff involved patients and their loved ones in the planning of their care where appropriate. This took into account their personal preferences. Loved ones were supported to participate in care where appropriate. The ward had a patient and family area in which people could have some time away from the care environment when necessary. Within this area there was the facility to make a hot drink and to relax away from the treatment area.

Patients and loved ones were supported to understand their rights. Their understanding was reviewed throughout the care and treatment plan. Staff had access to interpreters to support conversations. Staff outlined potential care and treatment giving the benefits and risks and patients had the ability to choose, where appropriate, different treatment methods offered.

People were supported to maintain relationships and networks that were important to them. Visiting hours were fairly relaxed to support patients, their family and friends to promote the patient’s wellbeing. Special arrangements could be made if required for different families.

Staff listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. Staff responded to people’s needs in the moment and acted in the moment to minimise any discomfort, concern or distress. The service had sufficient speciality trained nurses to provide inpatient oncology patients with a 1 nurse to 3 patient ratio. There was an oncology clinical nurse specialist and matron who specialised in oncology. In endoscopy the lead for endoscopy had specialist training in this field. This meant that the staff understood the specific needs of patients and could provide appropriate advice and support to patients to minimise discomfort or distress. There was a wide range of support services which these teams could access to support patients. Staff understood their patients due to the regular need for treatment in oncology and to know their individual patients needs. All the patients we spoke to told us that staff had time to listen to their concerns, views and wishes. Patients felt that staff understood and supported them through this part of the pathway.

Senior leaders always cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and were exceptional at supporting and enabling staff to always deliver person-centred care. At every meeting we attended there was discussion by leaders about how best to support the staff. A recent unexpected death of a patient had been a significant event for some staff and the senior team whilst having already put support mechanisms in place to address the initial shock and grief continued to discuss what more they could do to support affected staff through this period. Similarly, the senior team discussed a member of staff who was off sick. Despite the line manager providing regular support senior managers discussed what further support both physical and psychological they could provide.

The senior team were conscious that the business had now outgrown staffing levels currently in place and were actively advertising for staff. During this time the staffing levels were monitored twice a day locally and any deficiencies addressed. Staff felt respected and valued by the organisation and the senior team. They felt positive and proud to work at the hospital. They had access to a variety of means to support their own health and wellbeing. Post probation all staff were enrolled in the private medical insurance scheme. However, prior to this if staff had an accident, they could access the urgent care services. Staff received thank you’s from other staff via an IT platform. These were collated as a points system. The points could be cashed in for a variety of different “treats”. One member of staff told us how they had purchased some gym equipment for her home following the cashing in of their points.

The service had low sickness and absence rates of around 5%. Staff provided cover for staff who called in sick. As well as the electronic thank you’s the service undertook regular staff surveys through their Vital Voices programme. This demonstrated that staff were proud to work at the hospital. 89% of staff would recommend the hospital as a place to work at. However, everyone we spoke to was very positive about working at the hospital and for the organisation. Several recognition programmes were in place for staff. The Daisy Award was given to clinical staff as recognition of outstanding work. A member of staff at the hospital had recently been awarded this and had been presented with it by senior figures within nursing. A Bee Award was in place for non-clinical staff. The names had been designed as Bees and Daisy’s could not function without each other. The Chief Executive Officer recognised staff by sending handwritten thank you cards to staff who had gone the extra mile. Senior staff also promoted career development, and a talent development expo was due to happen at the end of October. This would include opportunities within the company, learning and development opportunities alongside career mentors for staff. Staff were to be given sustainable lunchboxes to promote opportunities.