- NHS hospital
Musgrove Park Hospital
Important:
This service was previously managed by a different provider - see old profile
All Inspections
During an assessment of Services for children & young people
Date of assessment 13 January to 11 February 2025.
We carried out this assessment as a focused responsive inspection due to new and emerging risk using the Single Assessment Framework (SAF). We assessed three key questions; safe, effective and well led, and have combined the scores for these areas with scores from the last inspection to give the rating. Our rating of this location stayed the same.
We rated it Good because the trust provided a safe, effective and well led service for children and young people.
The service had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. People were protected and kept safe. Staff understood and managed risks. The facilities and equipment met the needs of people, were clean and well-maintained and any risks mitigated. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Managers made sure staff received training and regular appraisals to maintain high-quality care. Staff managed medicines well and involved people in planning any changes.
People were involved in assessments of their needs. Staff reviewed assessments taking account of people’s communication, personal and health needs. Care was based on latest evidence and good practice. People always had enough to eat and drink to stay healthy. Staff worked with all agencies involved in people’s care for the best outcomes and smooth transitions when moving services. They monitored people’s health to support healthy living. Staff made sure people understood their care and treatment to enable them to give informed consent. Staff involved people who were important and took decisions in people’s best interests where they did not have capacity.
Leaders and staff had a shared vision and culture based on listening, learning and trust. Leaders were visible, knowledgeable and supportive, helping staff develop in their roles. Staff felt supported to give feedback and were treated equally, free from bullying or harassment. People with protected characteristics felt supported. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities. Managers worked with the local community to deliver the best possible care and were receptive to new ideas. There was a culture of continuous improvement with staff given time and resources to try new ideas. There were effective governance processes. The service had systems to manage staff performance effectively. They were proactive in identifying and escalating risks, they held up to date risk registers and took prompt action to minimise their impact.
During an assessment of the hospital overall
Date of assessment: 14 January to 11 February 2025. Musgrove Park Hospital provides a range of NHS hospital services. This assessment looked at the Children and Young People Service, due to new and emerging risk. We rated this service as Good. The rating from the Children and Young People Service has been combined with ratings of the other services from the last inspections. See our previous reports to get a full picture of all other services at Musgrove Park Hospital. The overall rating of Musgrove Park Hospital remains Good. In our assessment of the Children and Young People service we found the service fostered a positive learning environment where staff could raise concerns and managers thoroughly investigated incidents, ensuring people's safety. Staff understood and managed risks effectively, the facilities were clean, well-maintained, and met people's needs. There were sufficient staff with the right skills, who received regular training and appraisals, and medicines were well-managed with people's involvement.
People were involved in their care assessments, which considered their diverse needs and were based on current best practice. They received adequate nutrition, and staff collaborated with other agencies for good outcomes and smooth transitions. Staff ensured people understood their care to give consent and involved others in best-interest decisions when needed.
Leaders and staff shared a culture of learning and trust, with visible and supportive leaders promoting staff development. Staff felt supported, treated equally, and understood their responsibilities. The service engaged with the community, embraced improvement, had effective governance, managed performance well, and proactively managed risks.
The trust provided a safe, effective and well led service for children and young people.
We looked at the Children and Young People service only.
20 November 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Pages 1 to 3 of this report relate to the hospital and the ratings of that location, from page 4 the ratings and information relate to maternity services based at Musgrove Park Hospital.
We inspected the maternity service at Musgrove Park Hospital as part of our national maternity inspection programme. The programme aims to give an up-to-date view of hospital maternity care across the country and help us understand what is working well to support learning and improvement at a local and national level.
Musgrove Park Hospital provides maternity services to the population of Taunton and Somerset.
Maternity services included a Triage Ward with 4 beds and a side room; Antenatal Ward (Willow Ward) which included 4 induction of labour beds, 6 antenatal beds and 1 side room with en-suite facility; a midwifery led alongside birthing centre (Bracken Birth Centre) which included 2 pool rooms with en-suite facilities and 6 postnatal beds; a Postnatal Ward (Fern Ward) which had 11 beds across 2 bays, 2 transitional care beds in a shared bay and accommodation for up to 5 parents whose babies were on special care. There was a labour ward with 7 birthing rooms, 1 of which had a birthing pool and a procedure room; 2 recovery beds and 1 theatre. In the last year approximately 3000 babies were born at Musgrove Park Hospital.
We will publish a report of our overall findings when we have completed the national inspection programme.
We carried out a short notice announced focused inspection of the maternity service, looking only at the safe and well-led key questions.
Our rating of this hospital went down. We rated it as requires improvement because:
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Our rating of Inadequate for maternity services changed the ratings for the hospital overall. We rated maternity services as inadequate in both safe and well-led.
We also inspected 2 other maternity services run by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. Our reports are here:
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Yeovil District Hospital - https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RH5O4
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Bridgwater Community Hospital - https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RH5K6
How we carried out the inspection
We provided the service with 2 working days’ notice of our inspection.
We visited triage, labour ward, the antenatal and postnatal wards, transitional care, and the Bracken Birth Centre.
We spoke with 8 doctors, 10 midwives, 2 support workers, 7 women and birthing people and their birthing partners and/or relatives. We received 12 responses to our give feedback on care posters which were in place during the inspection.
We reviewed 7 patient care records and 9 medicines records.
Following our onsite inspection, we spoke with senior leaders within the service; we also looked at a wide range of documents including standard operating procedures, guidelines, meeting minutes, risk assessments, recent reported incidents as well as audits and action plans. We then used this information to form our judgements.
You can find further information about how we carry out our inspections on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection.