The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has been rated Outstanding overall by the Care Quality Commission.
The trust was rated Outstanding for being well-led, caring and responsive. It was rated Good for being safe and effective following inspections in May (core service) and July (well-led) 2018.
CQC inspected core services provided by The Royal Marsden Community Services. These were community health services for adults, community health services for children and young people and community end of life care. CQC inspected these services as they were registered with CQC as new legal entities since the last inspection in 2016.
CQC did not inspect any of the core services at the trust’s central London location as they were inspected in April 2016 and CQC had no new concerns about the safety and quality of the services. This inspection concentrated on services at Sutton.
There was evidence of Outstanding practice in several areas. In Outpatients a mobile chemotherapy unit provide patients with a service closer to home, reducing the frequency of hospital visits. A new outpatient and research building was planned which incorporated plans for new ways of delivering improved services. A telephone helpline was available 24 hours a day for patients to call for advice and information. The helpline was staffed by experienced healthcare professionals who could access patients’ records online and provide advice.
In Community end of life care the supportive care home team had launched a learning disability pilot for 11 care homes in Sutton looking to improve end of life care for its learning disability residents. The pilot included tailored training sessions delivered into the community and further engagement with other healthcare professionals. It proved successful and the team were in the process of rolling it out to other care homes in the borough. All staff inspectors talked to spoke very highly of the support they received from the supportive care home.
Trust-wide The Royal Marsden was actively participating in clinical research studies and is a leading research centre. There is a culture of innovation and learning throughout the trust. It benchmarks its performance against other specialist cancer centres, both in the UK and globally.
The trust was committed to the training and development of staff. Inspectors saw examples of targeted, individualised programmes. Staff well-being was a priority, there were initiatives to ensure teams enjoyed positive relationships and worked well together.
There was compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership at all levels. Leaders demonstrated the high levels of experience, capacity and capability needed to deliver excellent and sustainable care.
Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose, and strived to deliver and motivate staff to succeed. There were high levels of satisfaction across all staff and a strong, organisational commitment and effective action towards ensuring that there is equality and inclusion across the workforce. Staff were proud of the organisation as a place to work and spoke highly of the culture.
Safe innovation was celebrated. There was a clear, systematic and proactive approach to seeking out and embedding new and more sustainable models of care. There was a strong record of sharing work locally, nationally and internationally.
Professor Ted Baker, England’s Chief inspector of Hospitals, said:
“The outstanding care patients receive at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is impressive and I congratulate the trust and its staff for this excellent rating.
“The trust continues to innovate and provide quality care for its patients. I was particularly impressed with the mobile chemotherapy unit, which provides patients with a service closer to home. There is a culture of innovation and learning throughout the trust. It benchmarks its performance against other specialist cancer centres, both in the UK and globally.
“The trust rightly highly values the people that work there. Staff we spoke to were invested in the trust and happy to work for it.”
You can read the latest ratings grids on pages 13, 14 and 15 of the report; Read the report.
The outstanding care patients receive at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is impressive and I congratulate the trust and its staff for this excellent rating
Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals