- NHS hospital
Northwick Park Hospital
Report from 3 April 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
On 15 and 16 July 2025 we carried out an unannounced inspection at Northwick Park Hospital. This assessment looked at urgent and emergency care which we rated as requires improvement. The rating of urgent and emergency care has been combined with the ratings of the other services from our previous inspections. See our previous reports to get a full picture of all the other services at Northwick Park Hospital. This is the first time we have assessed the Urgent Treatment Centre as part of the urgent and emergency care assessment service group as another provider previously ran it.
The rating of Northwick Park hospital has remained the same, requires improvement with breaches of regulation 10, dignity and respect and regulation 12, safe care and treatment.
In our assessment of Urgent and Emergency Care, we found.
People could not always access care, support and treatment when they needed it with some patients waiting over 12 hours in the emergency department.
In temporary escalation areas there was no privacy. Patients did not have access to call bells should they need assistance and staff were not always visible in the areas we visited.
The service did not always assess or manage the risk of infection. Staff did not always wash their hands between patients.
Not all staff had completed safeguarding training, and several staff groups fell below the trust target completion rate of 90%.
Children were not streamed by a paediatric nurse when they arrived in the department leading to some patients with similar injuries being streamed differently.
The service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, based on openness and honesty. They listened to concerns about safety and investigated and reported safety events. Lessons were learnt to continually identify and embed good practice.
The service routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.
The service always treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion but in some areas did not always respect their privacy and dignity. Staff treated colleagues from other organisations with kindness and respect.
The service cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and supported and enabled staff to always deliver person-centred care.
The service made it easy for people to share feedback and ideas, or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. They involved people in decisions about their care and told them what had changed as a result.
The service had inclusive leaders at all levels who understood the context in which they delivered care, treatment and support and embodied the culture and values of their workforce and organisation. Leaders had the skills, knowledge, experience and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty.
The service fostered a positive culture where people felt they could speak up and their voice would be heard.