Midlands trust rated as Requires Improvement

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust has been rated as Requires Improvement following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspections, which took place in February and March this year, found that many services had improved since CQC’s 2015 inspection with End of Life Care being rated as Outstanding at both hospitals and in the community service. However, community inpatients was rated as inadequate.

The CQC has told the trust it must take action in several areas, including: patients in the emergency department must receive treatment within one hour of arriving, medical care services must ensure temporary staff being used are competent to fulfil the role, records of care and treatment in surgery provided to patients are accurate and complete and ensuring risks to the service are escalated, recorded, actioned and reviewed in a timely manner.

Professor Ted Baker, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “Although some improvements had been noted since our previous from October 2014, the trust had not made all the necessary changes to alter their rating. Staff in the outpatients department did not have their competencies assessed to ensure they were confident and competent to carry out their role. The trust did not always ensure there was enough staffing or appropriate skill mix.

“Despite these concerns, we found a number of areas of outstanding and good practice across Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. Staff must be particularly commended for their caring approach and we rated this area as Outstanding overall. We also rated end of life services and community health services for children and young people as Outstanding. The trust leadership knows what it needs to do to bring about improvement in the areas identified and our inspectors will return at a later date to check on what progress has been made.”

Toby Lewis, chief executive of the Trust said: “I would like to thank the CQC inspectors for their reports. We are all pleased that they recognised real improvement since the trust was inspected in 2014. I am delighted with the rating for our innovative partnership for end of life care, which we believe is one of the best services in the country, and underlines our strong tradition of partnership on the patch. The service is a role model for the wider STP.

“I want to pay tribute to our clinical teams for their continued dedication and compassion, which is well reflected in the report. There is no complacency at all, and our work to improve emergency care on our adult wards continues. The good well led rating is particularly pleasing given our commitment to developing clinical leaders and emphasising devolved responsibility within a wider system.”