Teddington Memorial Hospital ‘providing a good service’

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found improvements at Teddington Memorial Hospital in west London, following an unannounced inspection.

The hospital, part of Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust, was inspected in January and February 2017.

The purpose was to follow up on concerns, particularly the safe and caring domains which CQC had judged ‘inadequate’ in 2016.

The rating for the trust remains at ‘requires improvement’ overall, but the ratings for being effective, caring and well-led, have improved from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

The rating for Teddington Memorial Hospital Inpatient Unit has improved to ‘good’.

The CQC found that the inpatient unit had been restored to its intended function as a bedded rehabilitation unit, there was regular oversight of the inpatient unit by members of the executive team, staff had received additional training in areas that had previously been identified as week, and patient admissions and discharges were appropriately planned and managed.

It also found no issues associated with privacy and dignity in the accommodation, with staff seeking patients’ consent for treatment, rehabilitation patients achieving good outcomes, and feedback from patients and visitors being positive.

Some issues included that the staff did not always report incidents or near misses in all areas of the trust, and that high vacancy rates in community nursing had an impact on the service.

The CQC has told the trust that they must now: ensure incidents are reported and analysed effectively; review existing governance arrangements; ensure detailed records are sufficiently made on each patient treated; make sure all pertinent information in service user records are immediately available to practitioners on the electronic record system; and reduce the staffing shortages and high turnover of staff.

As well as these, the trust must ensure the staff vacancy rate does not compromise patient care, ensure that staff at Teddington Memorial Hospital know where to find Do Not Attempt Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) forms and know the process for managing active orders, ensure that hand hygiene audits at the hospital’s inpatient unit improve to meet the trust’s target of 95 per cent, and do more to meet its own waiting time targets.

Ted Baker, England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “We inspected the inpatient unit because inspectors were aware that the trust had made significant changes since the inspection in March 2016. The inpatient unit is much improved and was now meeting the regulations that had previously been breached and was providing a good service in all areas.

“We found one area of outstanding practice. The rapid response and rehabilitation team acted as a single point of access for admissions and was also involved in discharge ensuring that patients were supported to continue their rehabilitation after discharge home.”