Published on: 11 February 2019

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East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has retained its ‘Good’ overall rating and now has two services rated ‘Outstanding’ in the latest Care Quality Commission inspection report published today.

The Trust received ‘Good’ in the Safe, Effective, Caring and Well-led domains following the CQC inspection visits in summer 2018.

The team of 32 CQC inspectors said ‘care was delivered throughout the trust in line with national guidelines’, ‘staff across the trust were open and honest and there was a culture of reporting incidents if staff had concerns’ and ‘invested in new buildings and technology to improve the quality of services for patients.’

ELHT Chief Executive Kevin McGee said the Trust was proud of this latest achievement: “We are delighted to have maintained our ‘Good’ CQC rating. This is the second consecutive time the Trust has receive the positive assessment. It’s good news for the Trust, good news for our staff and good news for our community!

“I would like to thank everyone who works so hard at ELHT, including all of our colleagues out in the community. This is a testament to their dedication and compassion which has contributed towards this result. I am privileged to see the incredible care our staff provide 24/7, 365 days a year.

“This positive CQC report is the result of team effort. We are especially proud that our community end of life care and specialist mental health for children and young people both received ‘Outstanding’ for their first inspection result and that our medical care has also improved to ‘Good’.

The CQC, which is the independent regulator of health and social care in England, completed its inspections into the Trust during August and September last year. NHS Improvement, which is responsible for overseeing Foundation Trusts and NHS Trusts, also completed a ‘Use of Resources’ inspection in September and rated the Trust as ‘Good’.

While all ELHT services visited by CQC inspectors were rated good or better, two services have received the fantastic news that they are rated ‘Outstanding’. The East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Service (based at Burnley General Teaching Hospital) and ELHT’s community end of life care have both been awarded the highest possible CQC accolade.

ELHT Director of Nursing Christine Pearson said: “One of our main focuses at the Trust is to continue our successful integration of hospital and community health services. We are delighted that the CQC has acknowledged with their ‘Outstanding’ ratings for community end of life care and young people’s mental health.”

“This latest report underlines how ELHT and our partners across Lancashire work together to deliver fully integrated health and social care services. This massively benefits our patients and communities, and is a key part of the new NHS 10 Year Plan.”

CQC inspectors reported ‘outstanding practice’ in:

  • the introduction of a surgical robot to enable more accurate, less invasive procedures for patients
  • appointing a Domestic Violence Advisor within the Safeguarding Team
  • the ‘Refer to Pharmacy’ initiative which has improved patients outcomes and been adopted by other NHS Trusts
  • our multidisciplinary approach to end of life care
  • the ‘10,000 Feet’ initiative which had strengthened safety procedures in operating theatres
  • the children’s emergency department who have worked with a local charity to provide end of life boxes to parents whose child died in the department
  • the Hip and Knee School at Burnley General Teaching Hospital for being valued by 99.9 per cent of patients

 

“We welcome this in-depth review of our operations. And while the report contains a great number of positives, there is still room for improvement. We are already hard at work addressing the areas where we have not received the ratings we had hoped for,” added Kevin McGee. 

“We will continue to make improvements in order to provide the best possible care for the community we serve.”

A copy of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust report will be published on the CQC website on Tuesday 12 February: www.cqc.org.uk