Sutton Coldfield hospital ordered to make rapid improvements following safety concerns

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection of the Sutton Coldfield hospital nine months ago after receiving information about the standard of care being provided.

Inspectors found the service didn’t have enough staff to care for people and keep them safe, the service did not always demonstrate effective governance processes and not all staff had received training on all equipment they used, especially new items.

On a more positive note, the CQC said processes were in place for staff to follow to ensure people were safeguarded from the risk of harm and abuse and people had their medicines administered in line with policy and legislation.

Good Hope’s overall rating remains as requires improvement as from the last inspection. The areas of ‘safe’ and responsive’ also stay at the same rating.

Effective and caring remain rated as good from the previous inspection, and well-led has dropped from good to requires improvement.

A spokesman for Good Hope Hospital said a raft of improvements have been made since the inspection to address concerns raised over surgery services.

Charlotte Rudge, CQC interim deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: “When we inspected surgery services at Good Hope Hospital, we were concerned about the significant improvements which were needed around how they were managing the service’s processes to consistently ensure people’s safety.

“These concerns resulted in us issuing a warning notice to the trust, to focus its attention on making improvements in this area.

“We also found the service didn’t always manage safety incidents well, and didn’t always learn lessons from them to stop them from happening again to keep people safe in future.

“Leaders weren’t managing flow through the service, or bed usage well. They were using beds designated for people already in surgery or who had upcoming planned surgery, for transfers into the department from other wards.

“This led to delays for people returning from theatres or at times, cancelling people’s operations due to no surgery beds being available. They must address this urgently.

“Despite these issues with how leaders were managing the service, we heard from people who told us staff cared for them in a kind and considerate way. They also felt listened to and weren’t afraid to ask questions.

“We have told leaders where we expect to see rapid improvements around its processes, and we are continuing to monitor the service closely to keep people safe during this time.

“We will return to check on their progress and won’t hesitate to use our regulatory powers further if people aren’t receiving the care they have a right to expect.”

Among the measures taken by the hospital since the inspection is to appoint a theatre service co-ordinator and theatre technician to address environmental and equipment-related issues.

Regular audits are taken to collect data on recovery delays, access to emergency theatre and patient level readmission and shared at quality and safety meetings.

And the Hospital Risk Group has been re-enacted and is attended each month by senior leaders to monitor and discuss all risks.

A spokesperson for Good Hope Hospital, part of University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust, said: “Delivering safe and high-quality care, whilst supporting our colleagues to do their very best for our patients, remains our key focus.

“We are very pleased to have maintained our Good ratings for effective and caring and that patients experienced kind and considerate care from our surgical teams.

“We are glad patients also felt listened to and weren’t afraid to ask questions. We are confident that the wide-ranging improvements we have made since the inspection in June 2024 will have significantly improved the areas of concern within surgery services.”