North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) has been rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as “Good”, a major benchmark of high quality and effective services. This is the first time the Trust has achieved this rating since moving into its new hospital in 2014.
Since the Trust’s last inspection two years ago NBT has improved on every assessment bar one. Crucially, the Trust’s approach to caring for patients has been rated as Outstanding, as has the way the organisation is led. The Trust’s end of life service has also been rated as Outstanding.
A team of inspectors from the CQC visited the trust during June and July 2019 to check the quality of five core services: urgent and emergency services, medical care (including older people’s care), surgery, maternity and end of life care. CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the Trust well led?
Inspectors found:
- Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions.
- Staff provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.
- Services are well planned and managed by staff with the right skills, knowledge and experience.
- The Trust has a strong culture, with good morale and a clear set of patient-centred values.
- The Trust has a proactive approach to preventing harm, with staff willing to challenge poor practice, but when things do go wrong lessons are learned.
- The Trust has a culture of learning, innovation and continuous improvement.
Of the 37 domains inspected on this occasion which make up the Trust’s overall rating, 31 were either rated as Good or Outstanding.
North Bristol NHS Trust Chief Executive, Andrea Young, said:
“Our amazing staff and volunteers touch people’s lives on a daily basis and we are extremely proud of the high quality, safe care we provide our community.
“We have made enormous improvements since 2014 when this Trust and its staff undertook the biggest hospital change programme ever merging services from two hospital sites and moving into a brand new building. The professionalism and hard work of our staff through this period now shines through. We have the confidence and energy to go further and want to ensure every patient experiences exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.
“With incredible facilities, we provide leading edge treatments which deliver outstanding outcomes for patients, and as the CQC inspectors found, our staff regularly go the extra mile and care for patients with kindness, compassion and respect based on their individual needs.”
Dr Nigel Acheson, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals for the south, said:
“North Bristol NHS Trust has worked steadily to embed the improvements we requested at our last inspection. I want to congratulate them for this work. It has helped them move from Requires Improvement to Good.
“Our inspectors found a strong patient-centred culture. Staff were doing what was right for their patients, keeping them safe and involving them in decisions about their care. Patients and relatives spoke highly of staff and how they were kept informed of treatment plans, and how these would affect them.
“The trust has worked in a climate of some local scrutiny for the past few years. Despite this, they have managed significant improvements in medical care and surgery which are now rated as Good. End of life care which was rated as Requires Improvement is now rated as Outstanding.
“The credit must go to the hard work and commitment of the staff and leadership team. I congratulate them on their achievements. The overall rating of Good reflects a substantial improvement in the quality of services at the trust. We will continue to monitor the trust’s performance and will return to hopefully report on further improvements in due course.”
Julia Ross, Joint Lead Executive of the Healthier Together partnership and Chief Executive of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “This is very welcome news and a testament to the commitment and dedication of Trust staff, who have worked hard to improve the quality of services provided to their patients.
“The CQC report makes for very encouraging reading and demonstrates the significant progress the Trust has made in recent years, with a positive impact for our whole health and care system. On behalf of all Healthier Together partners, I’d like to congratulate the Trust on their achievement.”
Download the inspection reports:
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Further details on the inspection reports can be found by going to www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RVJ.
Previously NBT was rated Requires Improvement.