Congratulations Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

I am glad this morning to congratulate all the staff at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust: the Chief Inspector of Hospitals has recommended the Trust is taken out of special measures.

From the Care Quality Commission press release:

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has recommended that Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust should be taken out of special measures following a full inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

Professor Sir Mike Richards and his inspectors found that sufficient progress had been made to justify the recommendation to the NHS Trust Development Authority – although the trust will receive ongoing support to ensure that its performance continues to improve.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust had been put into special measures in July 2013 following the Keogh Review into hospitals with higher than average mortality rates.

The trust’s three main hospitals at Amersham, High Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville were inspected by CQC in March under its new inspection regime. An inspection team which included doctors, nurses, midwives, hospital managers, trained members of the public, a variety of specialists, CQC inspectors and analysts spent three days at the trust in March. Inspectors also returned unannounced on two evenings.

Reports which are published today show the trust has made significant improvements in a number of areas. Overall the trust has been rated as Requires Improvement, as have each of the three hospitals. The full reports are available at: http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RXQ

The Trust has worked hard to improve since being placed in special measures last year. The team has made significant progress through a new quality improvement strategy to reduce mortality, reduce harm and improve the experience for patients. We learn from the CQC that staff report a “sharpened focus” on quality and safety.

Change in organisations of the scale and complexity of the Trust is rarely fast, so it is not surprising that the CQC found areas which still require improvement. These include staffing levels, discharge planning and managing patient flow. Sir Mike said,

Special measures are designed to provide intensive support to struggling trusts and Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust has clearly gained from this support. There is no doubt that the trust is heading in the right direction and will continue to benefit from the ongoing support from the Trust Development Authority as they come out of special measures.

The inspection team identified nine areas of outstanding practice, including in Wycombe’s stroke unit, in our local cardiology service and in critical care.

According to the CQC, Wycombe hospital saw more than 36,000 inpatients and 145,000 outpatients a year at the time of inspection. I am now very much looking forward to the Trust continuing this positive journey towards fully meeting the needs and expectations of so many patients.