North Bristol NHS Trust’s progress has been highlighted in a report published by the Care Quality Commission today (Thursday, October 13).
The CQC included the progress made within Southmead Hospital as a case study in its State of Care report, its annual assessment of the quality of health and adult social care in England.
The CQC initially inspected the services in November 2014, just six months after the move into the Brunel building, and when they returned in December 2015 they noted significant improvements. The Emergency Department rating was upgraded from inadequate to good in the most recent inspection report. Our Intensive Care and Maternity and gynaecological services were also rated as good.
The State of Care report says: “We found that there had been significant improvements, particularly in emergency and urgent care.”
It also refers to the “holistic understanding of performance”, which has been noted across the Trust.
The report also highlighted the work of the Complex Assessment and Liaison Service within the Emergency Zone, which develops treatment and rehabilitation plans to help patients avoid admissions or shorten the time they spend in hospital. They also acknowledged the work of the Major Trauma Centre which reported the best survival rates for England in 2015.
Director of Nursing and Quality at North Bristol NHS Trust, Sue Jones, welcomed the inclusion of the Trust in the report.
“We are pleased to see the CQC highlighting our efforts and progress in its national report.
“Teams across the Trust, but particularly those involved in emergency care, put in so much hard work to improve the experience and safety of our patients. It was great to see these efforts acknowledged when inspectors returned in December and highlighted again today through the report.
“We know there are further improvements that we need to make and our staff are working hard to deliver them.”