Pennine Acute Trust hospitals are now providing safer, more reliable higher standards of care than ever before as confirmed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following its latest inspection.
The Trust whose hospitals were rated as inadequate just under four years ago
recognised for the significant improvements after the heath regulator today published its report, rating the Trust to be ‘Good’.
The CQC’s assessment means that Pennine Acute’s rating and standards of care have improved, year on year while the service areas inspected across the CQC domains, 90% are Good or Outstanding.
The Trust has been on a quality improvement journey since 2016 after it joined with Salford Royal as part of the formation of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group (NCA).
CQC inspectors visited the Trust from 3 to 26 September 2019 to assess the quality, care and safety in six core services across North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield General Hospital in Bury. These were: urgent and emergency services, surgery, medical services, critical care, end of life care and community inpatient services.
The Trust’s maternity, neonatal and children’s services at The Royal Oldham and North Manchester General Hospitals were not inspected on this occasion. This means that although both maternity units retain their Good rating and Requires Improvement for children’s services from 2017, the way the overall rating for each hospital is worked out by the CQC’s algorithm means that both sites could not improve on its overall rating.
Commenting on the CQC report Raj Jain, Chief Executive at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group which runs Pennine Acute Trust hospitals and services, said:
“This is fantastic news. We are really pleased for our staff to receive this positive CQC report. It rightly recognises the hard work and continued commitment staff have demonstrated over the past three years in providing high standards of care and also in driving the improvements that were needed.
“Since 2016 we have benefited from the strength and scale of our NCA group by bringing together Salford Royal with Pennine Acute Trust. We have put in place group-wide systems and processes, invested in medical equipment and our workforce, recruited more staff, and strengthened leadership teams at each hospital (Care Organisation) to empower and support staff.
“We know we have caring and compassionate staff, but by working together, by learning from each other and by putting the patient experience at the heart of everything we do, we have been able to really improve on the quality of care and reliability that was required. There is a completely different culture now – we are more open, honest and transparent, and benefit from a real positive learning culture.
“I am also extremely proud of staff who have made these improvements despite the challenges, increased demand on services and the historic underinvestment in IT systems and estates infrastructure. I must also recognise the contribution our commissioners have made. We have been successful at establishing effective working in each locality and through these partnerships we are continuing to drive forward 21st century care. Working together we will secure the much needed investment that will provide our staff and patients with modern infrastructure.
