- NHS hospital
Queens Hospital
Report from 10 February 2025 assessment
Ratings - Critical care
Our view of the service
Date of assessment. 13 March 2025. This was a scheduled assessment as the service had not been assessed since June 2019.
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton provide critical care for people in Derbyshire at Royal Derby Hospital and Queen's Hospital Burton. Critical care at Queen's Hospital Burton was last inspected in June 2019 and was rated as requires improvement.
During this assessment we assessed all quality statements across the safe, effective, caring and well-led key questions.
During this assessment we assessed 31 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring and well-led key questions. Following this assessment the rating has improved and critical care is now rated as good.
Staff were positive about the culture of the service and worked well together as a multidisciplinary team to provide safe care in line with best practice. There were clear processes in place for shared learning with a focus on continuous learning and improvement.
The environment was mostly safe and medications were managed appropriately
The service ensured they had the right number of staff to meet people's needs and nurses worked in line with national guidance for critical care nurse staffing, which states one nurse is required for each patient requiring level 3 care and one nurse for two patients requiring level 2 care. However, they had not ensured that staff were trained in line with national guidance. Only 46% of nursing staff had received post registration critical care awards. Although the trust had a clear plan in place to exceed the minimum guideline by the end of 2025.
Staff did not always manage hazardous substances in line with Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.
People's experience of this service
Due to the nature of the service the number of people that we were able to speak to was limited. However, people that we did speak to told us that staff were wonderful, and the level of compassion shown was outstanding. They told us that there had been one to one care. One relative told us that they understood the next steps following a deterioration in their relatives condition and that the doctors had ‘softened the blow’ when discussing this.