CQC recommends St George’s to come out of special measures

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been rated Requires Improvement by the Care Quality Commission and has been recommended to be taken out of special measures.

The trust, in South West London, was rated as Requires Improvement for being safe, effective, responsive and well-led, and Good for being caring. Both St George’s and Queen Mary’s Hospitals received individual requires improvement ratings, as per the CQC’s previous inspection.

St George’s services for children and young people were rated outstanding overall, with examples of leading practice highlighted by the CQC including emergency asthma bags for local schools, weekly meetings for parents on the hospital’s neonatal unit at St George’s, as well as pagers for parents so staff can easily contact them once their children are out of surgery.

However, among the areas where the trust needs to improve were ensuring that consent is correctly recorded in patients notes in line with best practice, as well as ensuring that all patient records are stored securely. Additionally, the trust must reduce the number of patient-moves at night, ensure senior staff are clear of who has overall responsibility and oversight of surgery at Queen Mary’s Hospital and checking that all equipment is clean, safe for use, and appropriate checklists are completed.

Jacqueline Totterdell, chief executive of the trust, said: “This is a really positive and significant step forward for the organisation – and all the credit goes to our staff. Many of our core services have seen an improvement in their rating and, crucially, the CQC has recommended that we are taken out of quality special measures, which is just reward for the focus our staff have put on patient care in recent years. We know there is more work to do, but today’s report confirms that we are edging closer to our ambition of providing outstanding care, every time for patients, staff and the communities we serve.”