Victoria Infirmary

Updated 14 April 2020

Victoria Infirmary is one of three locations registered by Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital provides outpatient services and a minor injuries unit.

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides urgent and emergency care services for the local population of approximately 280,000 people across Cheshire East, Chester and Cheshire West. Approximately 20,000 patients attend the minor injuries unit at the Victoria Infirmary each year.

The outpatient department at Victoria Infirmary caters for a wide variety of specialities. These include medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, urology, rheumatology, dermatology, gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat, dentals and psycho-geriatrics.

Updated 14 April 2020

Our rating of services stayed the same. We rated it them as requires improvement because:

• We rated the safe, effective and well led domains as requires improvement.
• We rated the caring and responsive domains as good.

However, due to the size of the service we have not aggregated the ratings with those of Leighton Hospital for an acute services rating.

Updated 15 January 2015

Care provided by services for children and young people was supportive to children, young people and their families. People told us that the staff were “lovely” and “very kind”. There were processes in place for safeguarding and such concerns were identified and referred to the relevant authorities. There were robust arrangements in place to report and monitor incidents and near misses. Staff were clear about their responsibilities in this regard. However the process for reporting safeguarding concerns via the incident reporting system was not as robust. This meant that incident reporting systems may not accurately reflect the safeguarding concerns identified.

There were clear governance arrangements in place that monitored the outcome of audits, complaints, incidents and lessons learned throughout the service. Staff were positive about the culture in children’s and young people’s services and felt supported by their senior managers. Staff were able to be innovative and introduce new practices to improve the quality of the service provided.

Children’s and young people’s services were forward thinking in how services could to be adapted to provide flexibility and sustainability in the future. There was a strong commitment to developing relationships across health networks.

Updated 15 January 2015

Patients attending the outpatient and diagnostic imaging departments were treated in a dignified and respectful way by caring and committed staff. Staffing numbers and skills mix met the needs of the patients in the department. However, consultants were sometimes called away to deal with emergency situations in other parts of the hospital or clinic’s over ran the times allocated. This meant that, at times, patients waited a long time to see their doctor.

There was a clear process for reporting and investigating incidents. Learning from incidents was shared and there were examples of changes in practice in response to incidents. Staff received training in safeguarding adults and children, the mental capacity act, health and safety, patient confidentiality and infection control.

The outpatient and diagnostic imaging departments were clean and well-maintained although the outpatient departments were sometimes quite cramped in terms of space and seating arrangements. Patient records generally were available for clinics and were secured and stored securely. There were occasions in the dermatology clinics at Leighton Hospital when patient records were not available for an appointment. In such cases staff prepared a temporary file for patients that included the most recent diagnostic and test results coupled with essential patient information so that the patient’s appointment could go ahead. Staff acknowledged that this was not ideal; however it meant the patient did not have to reschedule their appointment.

There was good local leadership and a positive culture within the service. Staff worked well as a team and supported each other.

Updated 15 January 2015

Surgical services provided good care and treatment for patients. Patient safety was monitored and incidents were investigated to assist learning and improve care. Patients received care in clean, hygienic and suitably maintained premises. The staffing levels and skills mix was sufficient to meet patients’ needs and staff assessed and responded to patient risks appropriately

Surgical services provided effective care and treatment based on evidence-based national clinical guidelines and staff used care pathways appropriately. The services participated in national and local clinical audits to benchmark and improve care and treatment for patients. Surgical outcomes were, in the main, positive. However, the number of patients that had elective surgery and were readmitted to hospital following discharge was worse than the England average. There were plans in place to improve areas where national clinical and performance standards had not been achieved, such as compliance with the national hip fracture audit.

Patients received care and treatment by trained, competent staff that worked well as part of a multidisciplinary team. Patients spoke positively about their care and treatment. Patients were treated with dignity and received their care in a compassionate way. Surgical services were planned and delivered to meet the needs of local people. There was sufficient capacity to ensure patients admitted to the surgical services could be seen promptly and receive the right level of care. There was effective teamwork and clearly visible leadership within the surgical services. There was a positive culture within the service that was focused on patient safety and learning. There was routine public and staff engagement and actions were taken to improve the services in response to patient feedback. The management team understood the key risks and challenges to the service and how to resolve them.