RUH welcomes CQC report on medical care

The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust has welcomed a report from the Care Quality Commission which found that staff did their utmost to provide safe and effective care and treatment of patients.

The focused inspection by the CQC, the independent regulator of health and social care in England, into the hospital's medical care took place in August this year.

RUH Chief Nurse Toni Lynch said: "This is a positive report from the CQC which recognises the outstanding work of our staff and the excellent care provided to our patients.

"I'm particularly pleased that inspectors highlighted the respectful and considerate way our staff treat patients and that patients felt listened to by ward staff.

"Inspectors also acknowledged the understanding and respect our staff give to people's personal, cultural, social and religious needs and the positive feedback we receive from patients and their families."

The report also identified some areas for improvement, particularly in relation to the way care is provided to vulnerable patients, for example those who lack capacity to make their own decisions or are experiencing mental ill health.

Toni Lynch said: "We were notified of the areas we needed to improve shortly after the inspection took place and swiftly put in place an action plan to address these areas. I am pleased to say we have already made good progress against this plan, improving our processes around caring for vulnerable patients and ensuring staff have up to date training in this area.

"Thank you to all of our staff who work so hard day in, day out to provide our patients with the very best care and support."

Catherine Campbell, CQC head of hospital inspection, said: "Our inspectors found that staff on the front line were doing their utmost to provide safe and effective care and treatment of patients. This was despite additional pressures in departments where there was a shortfall in the number of permanent staff available. The Trust did, however, make sure that that in those wards where extra staff were needed, bank or agency staff were used after having a comprehensive induction.

"Generally, we found staff providing excellent care, although, some team members didn't always know how to support people who lacked capacity to make their own decisions or were experiencing mental ill health. We did raise this to the Trust leadership team following the inspection. They took immediate action and have provided us with a comprehensive action plan which clearly addresses all concerns we raised."

Other findings from the inspection included:

• Staff took time to interact with patients and those close to them in a respectful and considerate way.
• Patients said they felt listened to by ward staff and they knew how to seek help if they needed it.
• Staff had a good knowledge of the services available within the hospital but also the wider community.
• Staff used a nationally recognised tool to identify deteriorating patients and highlighted issues appropriately.
• People's personal, cultural, social, and religious needs were understood and respected. Feedback from people who accessed and used the service was consistently positive.

Patients and their families said staff were caring and attentive and went over and above to make sure they had what they needed.

This focused inspection does not impact on the overall rating for the RUH's medical care service which remains 'good' overall.

The RUH remains 'good' overall and for being safe, effective and well led. Caring remains 'outstanding' and responsiveness remains 'requires improvement'.

You can read the CQC's full report here.

ENDS

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