Central London trust deemed to require improvements

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has been rated as Requires Improvement overall by the Care Quality Commission following its most recent inspection.

Although it was rated Good for being effective and caring, the central London trust was rated Requires Improvement for being safe, responsive and well-led - meaning the overall rating has remained unchanged.

Areas of outstanding practice noted by the CQC include the trust’s role as a leader in developing and using digital technology to improve patient care as a global digital exemplar, while having significant research funding in place to drive forward innovative practice in surgery was also recognised. This included a recent breath test trial for oesophageal cancer diagnosis.

Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “There has been some improvement in care at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the quality of some services are outstanding. However, there is still plenty of scope for the ratings of the trust to improve. I hope that before future inspections the trust can make further improvements so that it can achieve an overall rating of Good rather than Requires Improvement.”

Julian Redhead, interim chief executive at the trust, said: “We are pleased that we continue to be rated as ‘good’ for both the effectiveness and care of our clinical services. We are disappointed that our other ratings stayed the same or, in the case of urgent and emergency care at Charing Cross, moved down one ranking. This is despite great efforts by our teams to address the feedback we received in our last inspection, reflected in the many positive findings recorded throughout the report. We are committed to resolving the issues highlighted so that we can get to ‘good’ and beyond, as the CQC indicates.”