The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the Trust as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ in almost all of the services they inspected in March 2018.
The CQC noted the Trust has made a marked improvement in the quality of its care, and concludes that the Trust no longer needs to be in special measures for quality.
In the areas inspected by the CQC, everything was rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, apart from the Emergency Department at Eastbourne, which was rated as ‘requires improvement’, but ‘good’ for well led and caring. For the first time ‘outstanding’ ratings were given in three categories.
Conquest Hospital CQC ratings 2014 to 2018
Eastbourne DGH CQC ratings 2014 to 2018
The CQC acknowledged that on the basis of the inspection in March, the Trust’s rating would be ‘Good’, however the Trust’s overall rating remains as ‘requires improvement’, because not all services were inspected. This is explained in the CQC report: “Whilst the aggregated rating for the core services inspected at this inspection visit would have brought the Trust to good overall, the impact of the cores services we did not re-inspect leaves it as requires improvement overall.”
Dr Adrian Bull, ESHT Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted that the hard work and commitment of people across the organisation has been recognised by the CQC, with the services they inspected rated as mainly good or outstanding. I am also pleased that the Chief Inspector sees no reason for us to stay in special measures for quality. We have a talented and professional workforce and the rating of ‘good’ for caring is recognition of this. The Trust only remains ‘requires improvement’ because of the limited inspection. Once our other services are inspected, we fully expect to be ‘good’ overall, and we have encouraged the CQC to come back and inspect those areas as soon as they can.
“Our aim is to be an outstanding organisation by 2020, which provides excellent healthcare for the people of East Sussex, and that people are happy and proud to work. This report is clear evidence we are making good progress. We must continue to provide consistently high standards of care across all of our services and seek out every opportunity to make improvements to achieve our ambition of becoming outstanding.
“We remain in special measures for finance and we are committed to tacking our financial challenges. We are focused on maintaining and improving the quality and safety of the services provided. We will not take financial decisions without undertaking a quality impact assessment.”
Key findings of the inspection include:
- Staff treated patients with compassion, dignity and respect. Staff involved patients and their carers in decisions about their care and treatment.
- All the staff the CQC spoke with across the Trust placed compassion and empathy as integral to providing good care and it was evident that many “went the extra mile”.
- Staff from different departments and disciplines worked together as effective multidisciplinary teams for the benefit of patients.
- There had been a significant improvement in organisational culture.
- Whilst the Emergency Department at Eastbourne District General Hospital remained as requires improvement for safety, all other core services inspected were rated good, which was an improvement overall.
- The leadership team had the capacity and capability to deliver high quality, sustainable care.
- There was much improved cross site working and relationships
The CQC gives each hospital individual ratings for different services including whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. They inspected Medicine and Urgent Care on both sites, Surgery and Maternity at Conquest Hospital and Outpatients at Eastbourne District General Hospital.