Improvements found at South Tyneside

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has reported improvements in several areas following its latest inspection of some services at South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust.

The most significant improvements were noted in medical care, with inspectors recognising safe reporting of incidents, good examples of multidisciplinary working and visible, approachable and supportive line management.

In urgent and emergency care, the trust was recognised for improving standards of clear leadership, with a vision on achieving performance standards, as well as good staff morale and better performance times. Alongside medical care, the two areas moved from ‘requires improvement’ to good’.

The trust, which remains rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall, received ‘outstanding’ for being caring, finding staff as ‘kind, caring and compassionate’ and ‘treating patients with dignity and respect’.

Ken Bremner, chief executive of the trust, said: “The CQC report recognises the tremendous efforts of our staff and shows where, with focused efforts, the right support and positive local leadership, we have been able to make some significant improvements over the past year to benefit our patients. It is very reassuring to see that once again our staff have been rated as ‘outstanding’ for providing kind and compassionate care and that people feel proud to work for us. This gives us a very positive platform from which we can now build and continue to improve the safety and quality of our services overall.

“It is important that we celebrate these ‘good’ examples of positive leadership within individual teams and departments and that we share these right across all areas of our trust so that we can truly aim to be amongst the best in the NHS. It is equally important that we also now focus our efforts on the areas identified by the CQC for immediate action. By encouraging a positive culture of continuous
quality improvement, where every member of staff feels empowered to make changes to improve the care and experience we offer our patients, I anticipate further strong progress in the year ahead.”

Ellen Armistead, deputy chief inspector of Hospitals, commented: “The trust needs to make sure that staff feel empowered to help drive forward the improvements they want to deliver. At this inspection CQC again found staff at South Tyneside to be exceptionally caring, and this was reflected in all of the interactions we saw between them and patients. Moving forward, the trust board knows what it must do to ensure improvements are made and we will continue to monitor the service and re-inspect to check on their progress.”