The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has once again been rated Outstanding by the health regulator becoming the first specialist trust in the country to be given their highest accolade twice.

The Care Quality Commission report released today said that The Christie was ‘a leader in cancer care’ and are ‘pioneers in developing innovative solutions to cancer care.’

The Outstanding rating was first awarded to the Trust by the CQC following their inspection in 2016.

The CQC also praised the Trust’s staff who they said ‘go the extra mile to meet the needs of patients and their families’ and that they were ‘exceptionally kind and caring.’

The positive culture within the Trust was singled out for praise with the CQC finding it to be ‘extremely positive’ with ‘compassionate and effective’ leadership, together with ‘high levels of engagement with staff and service users.’

Roger Spencer, Chief Executive of The Christie, said: “We are very proud to be the first specialist hospital to be rated as Outstanding by the CQC for the second time.

“The rating is the highest we could have been given and it is testament to the dedicated, expert staff in every Christie department and site who work tirelessly to give the very best care and treatment to our cancer patients. Those patients are at the heart of everything we do.

“Notwithstanding these fantastic results, it is the culture of The Christie to pursue relentlessly innovations that deliver even better outcomes for our patients.”

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: “We reported in 2016 that The Christie was of exceptional quality and a leader in its field, helping to shape the future of cancer care. This passion for high quality care and innovative practice has continued, and we have found them to be Outstanding for a second time.

“Our inspectors again heard and saw great examples of patient care which were delivered by exceptionally caring staff. People told us that they felt like partners in their care planning and staff were extremely responsive to their changing needs.

“When we inspected whether the trust was well-led, we found that the leadership was able to demonstrate that they had expertise and were committed to and capable of delivering high quality sustainable care. There was a clear focus on constructive engagement throughout the trust, inviting challenge to drive improvements in the service. This led to high levels of satisfaction by patients, staff, and stakeholders.

“A second Outstanding rating is a well-deserved achievement. Everyone at the trust should be very proud.”

Christie patient Jon Roe, who was treated at The Christie for a rare form of cancer in his appendix, backed the findings of the CQC saying: “The care and treatment I received at The Christie was second to none. I had a rare form of cancer that required specialist surgery that only The Christie and one other hospital in the country could carry out. The kindness and care I received from the surgical team went above and beyond the call of duty and I can’t thank them enough.”

When the CQC completed its inspections of all 136 NHS acute non-specialist trusts and all 17 specialist trusts in 2017, publishing the report ‘The State of Care in Acute Hospitals 2014 to 2016’, they rated The Christie as the best specialist trust in the country, and one of the top three trusts overall in England. Of the six specialist trusts to have been re-inspected since then, The Christie is the first to have been found to be Outstanding twice.

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