England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as Good overall following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Milton Keynes University Hospital Foundation Trust was rated as Good for being effective, caring, responsive and well-led and Requires Improvement for being safe following an inspection in July this year.
The trust provides hospital services including an emergency department, critical care, general medicine including elderly care, general surgery, paediatrics and maternity care. It was inspected in October 2014 and it was rated as Requires Improvement overall.
CQC returned in July to carry out a focused inspection. Inspectors inspected visited the adult and children’s emergency department, medical care wards, maternity and gynaecology services and the end of life care service.
A number of improvements had been made since CQC’s last visit and this means the trust’s rating has now changed to Good overall.
CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:
“Our inspectors found a number of improvements had been made at Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust since our last inspection.
“We found staff that were passionate about providing high quality care and patients described them as caring and professional.
“The emergency department leadership team had significantly improved the its performance in meeting the four hour target to improve safety in seeing and assessing patients. A range of systems and processes had been implemented to drive improvements throughout the service.
“The Hospital Standardised Mortality ratio was significantly better than the expected rate and generally outcomes for patients were positive. Improvements had also been made in the completion and review of patients’ ‘do not attempt cardio pulmonary resuscitation’ forms.
“We found a maternity improvement board had been established to review incidents and risks and information was used to develop and continually improve the service.
“During the inspection we also found areas where improvement was required. We highlighted this to the trust and immediate action was taken to rectify a number of these concerns while our inspectors were still on site. The trust should be commended for this, but there remain areas where further work is needed.
“The trust knows what it needs to do to make sure any improvements are made and we will return to check on its progress.”
Full reports for the trust have been published.
There were some areas where improvements must be made, including:
- Some patients’ privacy was not respected when booking in at the reception desk in the emergency department at busy times.
- The non-invasive ventilation policy was out of date and had not been reviewed, which meant there was a risk that staff were not following current guidelines. While the service was aware of this and was planning to review it, there was no time scale for this.
- Not all medical staff had the required level of safeguarding children’s training.
- There was poor compliance with assessing the risk of venous thromboembolism but the maternity service had an action plan to place to address this concern.
Inspectors witnessed some areas of outstanding practice across the trust, including:
- The medical care service which had a proactive elderly care team that assessed all patients aged over 75-years-old, planned for their discharge and made arrangements with the local authority for any ongoing care needs.
- The medical care service ran a ‘dementia cafe’ to provide emotional support to patients living with dementia and their relatives.
- A dedicated bereavement box that contained appropriate equipment, soft lighting, and bed furnishings to provide a comfortable environment for patients needing end of life care had been piloted on ward two.
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of around 252,000 living in Milton Keynes.
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We found staff that were passionate about providing high quality care and patients described them as caring and professional.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals,