Newcastle Hospitals has been rated ‘outstanding’ for the second time in a row by the independent health and social care regulator the Care Quality Commission.
The Trust is just one of five in the country – and the largest NHS organisation – to receive the accolade twice.
Today (29 May), as the CQC published their report following an unannounced inspection of services in January – one of the busiest periods for the NHS – Chief Executive Dame Jackie Daniel paid tribute to the thousands of staff delivering Outstanding care across hospital and community settings.
“We are all incredibly proud to receive such positive recognition from the CQC. It really is an amazing achievement and down to each and every member of staff who work tirelessly, day in and day out, for our patients,” she said.
Newcastle Hospitals is very much a team; staff care deeply about the work they do and it’s their compassion, commitment and their energy to change and innovate that makes our organisation so special.
Dame Jackie Daniel, Chief Executive for the Newcastle Hospitals
“While an outstanding rating shows the hard work taking place, we’ve also made improvements in some key service areas since our last inspection including the Emergency Department and End of Life Care, which reflects our culture of continuous improvement.
“The most important thing for us is that our patients and wider community have confidence in their local health services and this fantastic rating endorses the all-round quality of care we provide and reaffirms our position as one of the UK’s top hospital trusts.
“We will maintain and build on these high standards so we can support our staff to deliver even better care and outcomes for patients.”
In January 2019, the Trust welcomed a team of inspectors from the CQC who spent a week inspecting services, with further ‘unannounced’ visits.
Today’s report from the Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, is the highest accolade possible for an NHS organisation and matches the rating it received in 2016, although further improvements have been made since its last inspection.
In total, six of nine key service areas – urgent and emergency services, surgery, critical care, maternity, end of life care and services for children and young people – are now rated outstanding (two more than at the last inspection).
The Trust’s biggest hospitals – the RVI and the Freeman – along with the Dental Hospital also received the top rating and departments which had the highest level of scrutiny from the CQC – emergency care (which this year was one of the top performing health Trusts in the country for its A&E target) end of life care and diagnostic imaging all received incredibly positive reports.
It was also the first time inspectors looked at management and leadership to determine whether the trust was ‘well-led’ and inspectors said:
“Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose, which, encouraged compassionate, inclusive and supportive relationships among staff so that they felt respected, valued and supported. All staff we spoke with told us and demonstrated the trust core value of “Putting patients at the heart of everything we do.”
Trust Chairman Professor Sir John Burn added: “I’ve always been extremely proud to be associated with a Trust that has such an absolute focus on providing excellent care and making a difference to both patients and staff.
“This rating is richly deserved for all our staff as well as our Board, governors, wonderful volunteers and the partner organisations who work so closely with us to respond to some of the challenges facing the NHS and make the most of new opportunities.”
Key inspection points:
You can read the full inspection report on the CQC’s website: CQC Outstanding Inspection Report 2019
