South London and Maudsley gets Good rating from CQC

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has been rated Good overall by the Care Quality Commission for being effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

The Good overall rating, which was also given in the trust’s previous inspection, was tarnished slightly by receiving a Requires Improvement rating for being safe.

Since the last inspection, the CQC found that the directorate structures and borough-based working for local services had become more embedded, which is ensuring that clinical leaders had manageable spans of control. The numbers of matrons across the organisation had been increased to support teams to provide high quality care.

Furthermore, the board had improved oversight of operational issues, with governance processes having been strengthened with each directorate having a monthly quality and performance review.

The trust was also deemed to be making progress with their quality improvement (QI) programme and had set ambitious targets for the next three years. At this inspection, most of the wards and teams we visited spoke with enthusiasm about the quality improvement projects that were taking place. There was focus on reducing violence and aggression for patients on inpatient wards.

Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector, said: “There is some very good care provided by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and there have been improvements since our last inspection. There are some breaches of regulations and I’d like to see them addressed quickly. Patients are still affected by the ongoing extreme pressures on the acute care pathway. Bed occupancy remains above 100 per cent on most wards, which meant staff might not have been able to manage the care of patients safely. There was not always a bed available for someone who needed one. The trust had placed 300 patients in out-of-area beds between February 2018 and December 2018.”