Good Hope Hospital

Ratings - Urgent and emergency services

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Requires improvement

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

We carried out this assessment following information of concern around waiting times, poor performance indicators and to follow up on the previous Warning Notice and breaches of regulation.

We inspected 25 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions and have combined the scores for these areas with scores from the last inspection to give the rating.

We found a breach of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, in relation to Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment. People could still not access care and treatment when they needed it. There was crowding within the department daily and lack of flow meant patients waited for long periods of time on ambulances and within the department

However, there was a good safety culture where events were investigated, and learning was embedded to promote good practice. Staff provided safe care and treatment, and the environment had improved and was now safer and well maintained. When the department was busy, leaders increased staffing levels to meet the needs of their patients.

Staff delivered good care and treatment following evidence-based practice and people had good outcomes. Staff were kind, caring and compassionate.

The department and staff were well-led by strong leaders who embodied the cultures and values of their workforce. There was improved governance and risk management, and a positive culture.

People's experience of this service

Patients and any family or carers with them were mostly positive about the staff treating them with warmth and kindness and providing effective care and treatment despite the long waits. However, there were some frustrations voiced around the long waits within the department due to crowding and lack of flow. 

Records showed they were given the tests they needed, and they felt staff were on hand if they needed them for help or support. People said they did not feel anxious about raising concerns.