CQC report into medical care services published today
Published on 19/04/2023
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today published their report into medical care services at Good Hope Hospital, and medical care and the children and young people’s services at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.
The report is based on inspections carried out in December last year and is available at the link below.
In medical care, the ratings for being safe and well-led remain as "requires improvement".
Children and young people’s services was rated as "requires improvement" for being safe and rated "good" for being well-led.
The overall rating for our Trust remains as "requires improvement".
Jonathan Brotherton, Chief Executive at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said: "I would like to thank the CQC for their inspection; their findings have highlighted issues that we are working on to improve the care we provide for our patients, as well as the work we are doing to grow the support we provide for our workforce.
"Importantly, the inspectors noted that our teams are working extremely hard under pressure and we are pleased that it was recognised that our teams treat our patients with kindness and compassion. This is something that I would also like to echo.
"Our staffing levels, like much of the NHS, are challenged and we are continually working to address this. We have a strong programme of work to support values-led recruitment, with a clear commitment to bring more brilliant people into our organisation, to continue to provide excellent care.
"Whilst we accept that we do not always get things right, we are pleased that good leadership in many areas and a strong commitment to safety were acknowledged in the CQC’s report.
"We fully accept the CQC’s recommendations, which we are already working through, alongside those in the patient safety review. We are committed to working with the CQC positively and to provide any assurance that is necessary, as we do this work.”
Following the inspections last December, the CQC served a specific warning notice about staffing levels in medical care at Good Hope Hospital, asking for significant and urgent improvement in this area.
There are eight areas of specific action that have been taken since the inspections in December, including: the refurbishment of the medical assessment unit; additional "decision to admit" capacity at Good Hope Hospital; considerable recruitment – our vacancy rate has reduced from 13% to just over 10%; clear drive and focus on the attraction, recruitment and retention of registered nursing, midwifery and operating department colleagues – including recruitment days; and planned improvements for the maternity estate and environment.
The full report is available to read at the link below.
