London North West Healthcare NHS Trust Requires Improvement

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated London North West Healthcare NHS Trust as Requires Improvement overall after its inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The trust is one of the largest integrated healthcare trusts in England established in a merger in October 2014.

Following the inspection in October and November 2015, CQC issued the trust with a warning notice requiring the trust to make significant improvements:

• The trust must provide expert support for consultant radiologists at weekends
• The trust must provide sufficient trained and experienced medical and nursing cover on its high dependency unit at all times including out of office and at weekends

The trust provides services at Northwick Park Hospital, St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow; Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal and Ealing Hospital. It also runs four community hospitals – Clayponds Rehabilitation Hospital, Meadow House Hospital, Denham unit and Willesden Centre - in addition to providing community health services in the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing and Harrow.

The inspectors rated caring at the trust as good, but found the trust Requires Improvement for safety, being effective, responsive and well-led. Read the full report and ratings for all key services.

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “I am aware that the trust has only recently appointed a new executive team which at the time of our inspection were still in the process of getting to grips with their respective functions.

“We found all staff working at the hospitals were dedicated, caring and supportive of each other within their ward and locality. But there was still a high degree of anxiety and uncertainty borne out of the merger.

“We saw several areas of good practice or progress including: a newly opened emergency department at Northwick Park; a refurbished and child friendly ward for children's care called Jack's Place; caring attitudes, and good partnership working.

“However we had significant concerns about the provision of expert support for consultant radiologists at weekends.

“The trust needs to provide sufficient trained and experienced medical and nursing cover on the High Dependency Unit all times to ensure immediate availability on the unit.

“We issued the trust with a warning notice in relation to these “must do" items.

“We will return in the near future to check that the trust has made the improvements that we require for the benefit of its patients.”

Ends

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