Royal South Hants Hospital

Updated 17 April 2019

The University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust provides outpatient appointments for adults for a wide range of medical, surgical and ophthalmology specialities. They provide services at the Southampton General Hospital (SGH), Royal South Hants Hospital (RSH), the Princess Anne Hospital and peripheral clinics at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Lymington New Forest Hospital and at the Countess Mountbatten House. However, the majority of adult outpatient clinics are located at the Southampton General Hospital and the Royal South Hants Hospital. Each year this trust facilitates over 900,000 outpatient appointments.

The trust provides consultant, nurse and allied healthcare professional-led outpatient clinics. Outpatient clinics are mainly coordinated by the Patient Service Centre.

Medical specialities were run out of Southampton General Hospital but some specialities held their outpatient clinics at the Royal South Hants Hospital.

During this inspection we visited the Royal South Hants Hospital and the following outpatient departments:

Trauma and Orthopaedics

Dermatology

ENT

We previously inspected outpatients jointly with diagnostic imaging so we cannot compare our new ratings directly with previous ratings.

Updated 17 April 2019

We rated them as requires improvement because:

On this inspection we rated the outpatients service as requires improvement because:

• The service did not effectively control all infection risks.
• The service had capacity issues in certain departments and could not cope with the volume of patients attending clinics.
• Systems and procedures to monitor and manage risks to patients had failed which had led to patient harm.
• It was unclear if there was a robust system for providing feedback and lessons learnt from complaints or incidents to staff working in outpatient services.
• It was unclear if the outpatient services had robust, well-established and effective leadership and governance processes.

However:

• Staff were supported through service related policies and procedures in addition to evidence based professional guidance.
• Feedback from people using outpatient services, and those close to them, was continually positive about the way staff treated them.
• Services provided by the outpatient departments mostly reflected the needs of the local population.
• Most patients were able to access the service in a timely way, with many specialties in line with or close to the national averages in waiting times.

Updated 17 April 2019

We previously inspected outpatients jointly with diagnostic imaging so we cannot compare our new ratings directly with previous ratings.

On this inspection we rated the outpatients service as requires improvement because:

• The service did not effectively control all infection risks.
• The service had capacity issues in certain departments and could not cope with the volume of patients attending clinics.
• Systems and procedures to monitor and manage risks to patients had failed which had led to patient harm.
• It was unclear if there was a robust system for providing feedback and lessons learnt from complaints or incidents to staff working in outpatient services.
• It was unclear if the outpatient services had robust, well-established and effective leadership and governance processes.

However:

• Staff were supported through service related policies and procedures in addition to evidence based professional guidance.
• Feedback from people using outpatient services, and those close to them, was continually positive about the way staff treated them.
• Services provided by the outpatient departments mostly reflected the needs of the local population.
• Most patients were able to access the service in a timely way, with many specialties in line with or close to the national averages in waiting times.