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Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals rated as ‘good’ by the
Care Quality Commission
The independent health care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated Ashford
and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as ‘Good’ following their inspection in
December.
Suzanne Rankin, Ashford and St. Peter’s Chief Executive said: ‘I am absolutely delighted with
this result which reflects very well on our Trust and is testament to the hard work, care and
commitment shown by our staff, not just during the inspection but on a daily basis as they go
about their work caring for our patients.
This was the first time our hospitals had been inspected under the new regime, which involved a
much more rigorous approach than previous inspections, and comes against a backdrop of twothirds of hospitals having been rated by the CQC as requiring improvement1, so it is even more
pleasing that we have been recognised as providing good quality care. Our primary concern is
always to provide the best possible services for patients that we can and this report bears out
some of the excellent work we are doing to improve patient care and experience.
There were some real highlights and areas of best practice which the CQC identified including
the caring attitude seen throughout our hospitals, real strengths in how we care for patients
nearing the end of their life, good team working and how well we use electronic patient records
to improve the care we give.
We also recognise that there are some areas for improvement and we are already well
underway in putting in place robust action plans to address these. For example, we are working
with partners across the local healthcare system to make long term improvements to
emergency care services so we can reduce waiting times in A&E and improve the discharge
process for patients.
One area the report does highlight relates to safety, in particular having the right number of
skilled permanent staff. Feeding back to us at their Quality Summit last week, the CQC made it
1
CQC’s State of Care Report 2013/14 http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/state-care-201314
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very clear that they are not saying our hospitals are unsafe; rather that safety can be improved.
We know we have difficulties in recruiting a number of staff groups, nurses and middle grade
doctors in particular, and whilst we fill gaps with agency or bank staff, we recognise that is not
as good - or as safe - as having staff who are permanent members of the team. We are already
actively progressing different recruitment strategies but it's clear we need to be even more
creative about how we do this. It is an absolute priority for us.
Importantly the CQC commented that quality and safety were a priority reflected from the
executive level down, and specifically picked out our positive reporting culture.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues in both our hospitals - Ashford and St.
Peter’s - for their unwavering commitment in caring for patients and to say how pleased I am
that this has been recognised by our key regulator. I feel incredibly proud to lead this
organisation, one that the CQC described as having better than expected outcomes for patients
and, overall, as a good place to come and get your care.’
Julia Ross Chief Executive of North West Surrey CCG commented: “This is a really good result
for Ashford and St Peter’s and for local patients. I know the Trust is working hard to make the
right improvements and will take the results of the inspection very seriously. As commissioners
we already work closely with the Trust and will continue to do so to ensure patients in North
West Surrey are able to access the very best local healthcare.”
As well as an overall rating the CQC provides individual ratings on 5 key elements looking at
whether the Trust is safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led. The report focuses on 8
core services (urgent and emergency services, medical care, surgery, critical care, maternity
and gynaecology, services for children and young people, end of life care, outpatients and
diagnostic imaging) so the rating provides a comprehensive view of the level of care and service
the Trust provides.
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You can read the full report on the CQC’s website.
ENDS
For more information please call the Press Office on 01932 722163
Notes to editors:
The CQC is the independent health and adult social care regulator.
They make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective,
compassionate, high-quality care and encourage them to improve.
They do this by monitoring, inspecting and regulating services to make sure they meet
fundamental standards of quality and safety and they publish what they find, including
performance ratings to help people choose care.
The CQC ask five key questions of all the services they inspect:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Are they safe?
Are they effective?
Are they caring?
Are they responsive to people’s needs?
Are they well-led?
The new inspection approach to NHS trusts was put in place from September 2013.
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