News

 Kettering General Hospital has come out of special measures after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) published today (May 22, 2019) found it had made significant improvements.

The CQC’s report describes how the hospital has progressed to the point where all areas inspected have been rated as either good or requires improvement.

The Trust’s overall rating remains at ‘requires improvement’ but NHS England and NHS Improvement considered the good progress was enough to enable the hospital to comes out of special measures.

The report also shows the Trust received an overall rating of Good for caring across all of the services reviewed and inspectors found examples of good and outstanding practice across the hospital.

Key findings included:

• Diagnostic imaging receiving an improved rating from Inadequate to Good overall. It has reduced reporting backlogs and has a strong commitment from staff to provide the best possible care for patients p42
• Maternity’s rating improved from Requires Improvement to Good across all of five domain questions – and the Trust was commended for achieving very high standards (Unicef Baby Friendly level three) for encouraging breast feeding – p34
• Urgent and emergency care (including A&E) improved from inadequate to Requires Improvement in the safe and well-led categories with new leadership in place, but still facing considerable demand pressures –p21
• Outpatients retained its overall rating of Good and improved its responsiveness to Good. It was also commended for outstanding practice for ways in which it delivers chemotherapy and for organising the way it delivers clinics – p39
• Medical care remains as Required Improvement overall – but was rated Good for caring and Good for being responsive to the needs of local people – p26-27
• Staff were found for be caring across all the services reviewed and the report notes - “Staff cared for patients with compassion. Staff provided emotional support to minimise their distress. Staff involved patients and those close to them in decisions about their care and treatment” p5-6

Kettering General Hospital’s Chief Executive, Simon Weldon, said: “I am really pleased that the CQC and NHS England and NHS Improvement have recognised the progress that we’ve made.

“This is reflected in the ratings we received in the CQC report and by the decision by NHS England and NHS Improvement to bring us out of special measures.

“I would like to thank all staff for their commitment over the past year – this achievement really belongs to them. 

“Their dedication and strong desire to provide good care for our patients shines through in this report.

“I also acknowledge the further challenges ahead.  I know there is more hard work that we need to do to continue our journey and the CQC has clearly set out the issues that we need to address.”

The current CQC inspection report relates to an inspection of five key service areas carried out in February 2019.

The areas inspected were urgent and emergency care (including A&E), medical care, maternity, outpatients, and diagnostic imaging. It also included an associated well-led inspection in March 2019 and use of resources inspection in January 2019.

Today’s report highlights key areas of strong and improved performance including:

• Being rated Good for well-led overall. This is an improvement from the requires improvement rating of the previous report
• Raising all service areas where aspects of performance were previously rated inadequate in 2018 up to good or requires improvement

Kettering General Hospital’s Medical Director, Prof Andrew Chilton, said: “It is fantastic to see all of the hard work done by our staff over the last year to improve care and to improve the way we work being recognised in this report.

“In areas where we have been especially challenged – such as emergency care and diagnostics – we have made great progress

“I want to thank all of our teams for their efforts as we continue on our journey of improvement.”

Kettering General Hospital’s Director of Nursing and Quality, Leanne Hackshall, said: “The report does list areas where we can improve our care and our processes and we will be working down that list and addressing all of the matters raised.

“Themes have included the need to continue to focus on staff training; being thorough in delivering the basics of care -such as patient assessments, documentation and privacy and dignity- and also improving our facilities.

“We will be working to address all of these issues and I think both our digital transformation and forthcoming estates strategy will help with this – along with the usual actions we would take to address specific matters.”

Kettering General Hospital’s Chairman, Alan Burns, said: “Today’s report shows clear progress on our journey of improvement.  We are ambitious and plan to invest in and further develop our services, processes, and the skills of our teams, to the point where we are regarded as an outstanding organisation.”

NHS England and NHS Improvement – Midlands has formally approved the Care Quality Commission’s recommendation, included in its report to be published on Wednesday 22 May, that Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust comes out of special measures.

CQC comments

Professor Ted Baker, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “Our return to Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust showed further improvement had taken place and previous improvements had been maintained.

“At our October 2016 inspection, the overall rating for the trust was Inadequate with two of the five key questions we ask, safe and well-led, also being rated as Inadequate. Since then - during both our inspection in November 2017 and our most recent inspection - we have found steady improvement being made at the trust, with the support it has received through being in special measures.

“As a result of the inspection the trust’s leadership is now rated as Good. We found the trust had managers with the right skills and abilities and there was a mix of experience within the executive directors.

“There was a clear vision and strategy developed with staff and the executive team and that managers promoted a positive culture which supported and valued staff, creating a sense of common purpose based on the trust’s shared values.

“There were improvements in the majority of the core services we inspected. Maternity services and diagnostic imaging’s overall ratings improved and are both now rated as Good and, although more work is needed, we found improvements in urgent and emergency services which is now rated as Requires Improvement overall.

“Our inspectors found a dedicated staff at the trust who had worked hard to ensure improvements were made and they witnessed aspects of outstanding care in the maternity service.  In diagnostic imaging, significant improvements had been achieved resulting in considerable reduction to the reporting backlog found at the last inspection. This meant results were now available in a timely way.

“However, there is still work to be done in ensuring people always receive the treatment and care they should be able to expect. The trust board knows what it needs to do now and we will return to check on their progress with improvements at the trust.”

NHS England and NHS Improvement comment

Frances Shattock, Director of Strategic Transformation for NHS England and NHS Improvement – Midlands, said: “The move out of special measures reflects the progress made by the Trust’s leadership team, whose efforts have been recognised with a rating of good for the well-led category, and the work of the staff, praised by the CQC for their dedication.

“We were pleased to see all areas inspected by the CQC have been rated as either good or requires improvement.

“With the overall rating remaining as requires improvement, we will continue to work with everyone at the Trust to sustain and deliver the necessary further improvements in its services for patients.”

For more information

Full details of CQC’s inspection, its ratings for the trust, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published online at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RNQ51