'Good' rating for Rugby's Hospital of St Cross

The Care Quality Commission awarded St Cross a ‘good’ rating, while UH was rated as ‘requires improvement’. St Cross was said to have improved since its last CQC inspection – which also saw it rated ‘good’.

Particular strengths at St Cross included staffing levels, assessing risks, maintenance of equipment and environments.

Staff were found to be caring for patients with ‘respect and compassion’, while feedback from patients was ‘very positive’.

The only category at St Cross to receive a ‘requires improvement’ rating was ‘well led’. The CQC states leadership is crucial to the effectiveness of healthcare. At St Cross the report found there was no clear leadership or effective governance systems in the urgent care centre and there was a lack of innovation.

At UH, it was found that not all staff working in urgent and emergency care and maternity had been given mandatory training. The CQC found we found potential risk to patient care in ‘some areas’.

Staff told the CQC that high levels of demand and meant they did not always have the time to complete training.

At emergency and urgent care, there was an occasional shortage of nursing staff with the correct skills and qualifications to keep patients safe – resulting in a high reliance on temporary staff and some shifts not being filled.

Chief executive officer, professor Andrew Hardy, said: “While pressures and staffing challenges are affecting trusts across the country, at UHCW we have made strides in reducing waiting times for patients, and will have a new intake

of nurses starting next month.”

UH has seen its ratings improve in several areas since its last inspection. Strengths at hospital included compassionate staff and good planning for the provision of services.

Chief Executive Officer, Professor Andrew Hardy, said: “I’m delighted that the CQC have found that staff at the Hospital of St Cross are continuing to provide safe, effective and responsive care to our patients.

As a Trust, we have improved our ratings in many areas since the last full CQC inspection in 2015, including receiving a ‘good’ rating for Well-Led. What also shines through the report is how proud our staff are to work for the Hospital of St Cross and UHCW as a whole.

However, we have to acknowledge that we are on a journey of continuous improvement, and there are some areas at St Cross where we can develop.

These include reducing waiting times for patients being seen for consultant appointments and continuing to recruit and train the staff we need to provide the best care possible. We have already made improvements since the CQC visited in April.

I am confident that we have a clear plan to address the issues identified in this report to get to a ‘good’ rating for the whole Trust and make the care for all our patients even better.”

See www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RKB for the report.