The Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust in Islington, North London, as Good overall, with caring at the trust rated as Outstanding.
The Care Quality Commission’s team of inspectors visited the trust, which operates under the name of Whittington Health, in December 2015. They found staff to be highly committed to the trust and that they delivered high quality patient care.
CQC Inspectors carried out an announced inspection between 8 and 11 December 2015 and also undertook unannounced visits on 14, 15 and 17 December.
Most core services most were rated Good, although critical care and outpatients and diagnostics were rated as Requires Improvement. Community end of life care and community dental services were rated as Outstanding.
The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:
“We saw several areas of outstanding practice at Whittington Hospital. We saw staff provided compassionate care and patients were positive about the care they received and felt staff treated them with dignity and respect.
“Within the emergency department there was outstanding work to protect people from abuse. The lead consultant and nurse for safeguarding coordinated weekly meetings attended by relevant staff to discuss cases where they were concerned that people may be at risk and to make plans to keep them safe.
“Within community end of life care we found the service provided outstanding, effective services to children, young people and their families. We saw examples of very good multidisciplinary working and effective partnerships with the local GPs, other providers and hospices.
“However, there were some areas of poor practice where the trust needs to make improvements. It must review bed capacity across medicine, surgery and critical care to ensure patients are appropriately placed within the correct specialism.”
Following the inspection, the trust has been asked to provide a plan setting out how it will address the improvements which have been identified. CQC will continue to monitor the trust’s performance and return in due course to check progress.
You can read the report here from Friday 8 July www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RKE
Ends
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Find out more
Read reports from our checks on the standards at The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust