Improvements needed at South Tees Hospitals

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the services provided by South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as Requires Improvement overall following inspections in January and February 2019.

Having previously been rated as Good, the inspectors visited the trust to assess four core services across James Cook University Hospital and Friarage Hospital: urgent and emergency, medical care, surgery and diagnostic imaging - which was inspected for the first time as a separate service.

Unfortunately, concerns about critical care services were identified, critical care in both hospitals was rated Inadequate for being safe and Requires Improvement overall. Furthermore, whilst leaders were aware of some of the risks, issues and challenges they were not always acted upon in an effective or timely manner.

Some staff voiced concerns that the leadership created a top down and directive culture, staff morale throughout the services was mixed and staff engagement was poor.

Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “We saw a lot of good practice across the services we visited. Patients felt involved in their care and staff were kind and compassionate. However, it was clear that since the last inspection the trust has not sustained all of the improvements they made previously. During our visit we identified the need for further inspection and found additional concerns in the critical care services and leadership. These improvements need to be revisited and action taken quickly, we will be monitoring the trust’s performance and return to inspect again in due course.”

Siobhan McArdle, chief executive of the trust, said: “We note the CQC have published their report. The report contains a number of actions, many of which we have already completed. Within the next three weeks we will have finalised a comprehensive action plan to address all outstanding issues.

“The CQC have rated many of our core services as good and acknowledged the very positive feedback they received from patients and carers during the inspection. We would like to thank all of our staff for their continued dedication and commitment to the delivery of good patient outcomes and experiences, often in the most challenging of circumstances.”