Walsall NHS boss responds to 'requires improvement' rating after inspectors visit
A health chief executive has promised "robust action" after an NHS trust was rated "requires improvement" by inspectors.
The Care Quality Commission held unannounced inspections in September, October and November at children and young person’s services, medical and surgical services at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Manor Hospital.
"Some improvements" were found by inspectors but ratings for safe, effective, well-led and responsive remained as requires improvement, caring remained outstanding.
Chief Executive Professor David Loughton CBE said: “We are proud to see that the CQC inspectors found some outstanding practice when they came to the Trust last year and highlighted some areas of improvement.
“These included our “exemplary” patient, carer and public engagement and involvement, exceptional performance in the Emergency Department and consistently lowest ambulance handover rates in the region and a team effort to ensure gold standard care for patients with hip fractures which resulted in a national award and has seen the Trust now rated as second best in the region for its service.
“In particular, surgery saw its ratings in effective, caring and well-led improve from Requires Improvement to Good with Surgery now rated overall as good."
He added: “The inspectors reported that more work still needs to be done to ensure people receive safe and appropriate care – in particular around medicines management. The prescribing, administration, recording and storage of medicines has been the focus for a lot of work under the leadership of our Chief Medical Officer Dr Manjeet Shehmar.
“Now we have received the final CQC report we will target the areas identified through our robust action plan, working with staff and the people who use our services to drive further improvements.
“I’d like to thank our staff for their continued hard work to make Walsall Healthcare an inclusive environment where patients, their families and carers can be reassured we are doing our collective best for them.”
Inspectors found safe processes and systems were not always in place to manage the prescribing, administration and storage of patients’ medicines and medicine related documents.
Whereas services for children and young people did not always take account of patients’ individual needs.
Service leaders were found not always to run services well and information systems were not always reliable and in surgery services, staff did not always assess risks to patients in relation to venous thromboembolism (VTE)
