10.05.19
Special measures care centre jumps to ‘Good’ CQC rating
An urgent care centre in east London has jumped two CQC ratings and risen from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Good’ after major action was taken to “turn the service around.”
King George’s Emergency Urgent Care Centre (EUCC) in Ilford was placed in special measures nine months ago and received two warning notices from the CQC, but the latest inspection found that the centre had made major improvements to patient care, protocols and its layout.
Inspectors found that action had been taken to deliver “high-quality and person-centred care,” improving how the service assesses and monitors patients, and making appropriate clinical equipment available.
Several management changes at King George’s EUCC, which is run by the Partnership of East London Co-operatives, have followed since the August inspection report, including the appointment of a new chief executive, director of nursing, medical director, and lead doctor for urgent care.
At the previous inspection, privacy and confidentiality concerns were highlighted due to the service’s poor physical layout, but the provider’s landlord had successfully completed building improvement works making the service more conductive to maintaining patients’ privacy.
Another previous concern was the failure to safely assess, monitor and manage risks to patients, but new protocols have been introduced and training provided to support how clinicians ‘streamed’ patients.
Inspectors reported a strong focus on continuing learning and improvements at all levels of the organisation, and rated the urgent care centre as ‘Good’ overall.
Head of inspection for primary medical services in London, Anthony Hall, said: “I am always pleased to see improvements in the care patients receive. It is particularly pleasing when a service that was previously rated inadequate jumps to a rating of ‘Good.’
“Everybody involved in the hard work that made this happen at King George’s Emergency Urgent Care Centre deserves praise for turning the service around.”
The CQC however did issue a list of further improvements needed at the EUCC, including additional improvements to the physical layout and for the provider to monitor how long patients wait in queues.