08.11.17
Underperforming Coventry and Warwickshire trust keeps low CQC rating
Following an inspection by the CQC, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust has retained its low ‘requires improvement’ rating.
The trust received a rating of ‘good’ for its care but fell to the lower mark for safety, efficacy, responsiveness and leadership.
Coventry and Warwickshire received its initial lower rating in April 2016, including details of the necessary upgrades which would bring the rating up to ‘good’.
However, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, Dr Paul Lelliott, said the trust had failed to build on the recommendations it received and was still struggling in some key areas.
The regulator told Coventry and Warwickshire that it must improve monitoring and risk reduction processes across physical and mental health wards for older people. This includes continuing and completing work to improve ligature risks.
In addition, seclusion rooms for patients were identified as an area for improvement. This involved a focus on ensuring areas were fit for purpose and that less risk was involved in accessing and leaving rooms.
Lelliot explained the low rating but highlighted some positives which had been revealed from the inspection – held in late June this year.
He said: “Our inspectors found that the trust must make a number of improvements to bring its services up to a level that would earn a rating of ‘good’ overall. The trust had not made all the necessary changes from our previous inspection in April 2016 to change its rating.
“Despite these concerns, we found a number of areas of good practice across the trust. Staff were kind, caring and respectful. We saw some services that went above and beyond to meet patient and carer needs. Patients and carers feedback was positive and highlighted the staff as a caring group.
“The trust had developed its approach to how patients were managed when presenting with challenging behaviours. The trust had developed person-centred positive behaviour support plans and had significantly reduced the number of patients who were restrained.
“The trust leadership knows what it needs to do to bring about improvement in the areas identified and our inspectors will return at a later date to check on what progress has been made.”
Improving Services
In response, Simon Gilby, chief executive at Coventry and Warwickshire, said the rating was a “great disappointment” to the board and staff but that the report showed that things were at least beginning to improve.
He continued: “We have already started work on areas for attention identified by the CQC. This includes an area of immediate concern highlighted in relation to the monitoring of physical healthcare on our older adult wards.
“Work has also begun to address potential delays to triage for people awaiting initial assessment in our specialist mental health service for children and young people. This issue is now resolved, there has been no detrimental effect on patients’ overall waiting time for treatment, and with the service now back on track we triage referrals within one working day.
“Our Friends and Family Test results show that 95% of patients and their families said they would recommend the Trust as a place to receive care and treatment, and the CQC inspectors recognised that the trust used learning from incidents to make improvements to services, for example the work we have done to reduce the use of restraint in our inpatient wards.
“We will continue to work with the CQC on the further improvements they are seeking, as we remain committed to providing the best quality care we can for all the people we serve.”
Top image: Gabricon
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