Celebrating the latest milestones on our exciting improvement journey
Many of you may have heard by now the latest good news from the Care Quality Commission about the quality of care we provide in our hospitals.
Following the comprehensive inspection last year, which rated two-thirds of all the inspected areas as “good”, we have today received similar accolades for both maternity and end-of-life services at The Royal London Hospital. A separate report from another top-up inspection has also upgraded maternity services at Newham from being inadequate to requiring improvement.
I am delighted that the quality regulator has recognised these marked improvements in services, and highlighted examples of outstanding practice amongst staff. This is further evidence that the Trust is moving in the right direction towards our goal of becoming an outstanding healthcare organisation.
Unfortunately, this welcome progress is not enough on their own to shift our overall Trust rating, which remains at “requires improvement.” Nevertheless, there has been significant improvement that reinforces the decision to take us out of special measures last month. And the proof of this is that the Royal London Hospital as a whole has now been upgraded to “good” overall, joining St Bartholomew’s Hospital in that category.
Part of this is due to the knock-on effect of the “good” ratings for end-of-life care and maternity services. In addition, the CQC has finally acknowledged that our dental hospital at The Royal London should be treated as a core service, and this means its own ratings (most of which were outstanding in the last inspection) are now included in calculating the overall rating for the hospital too.
In fact, four out of five areas inspected at the hospital are now rated good or better. Staff in maternity services can be particularly pleased because they were judged to be outstanding for well-led. In total, the CQC has identified 22 examples of outstanding practice across the hospital, including in trauma, a clinic for survivors of childhood abuse, multi-disciplinary teams for end-of-life care, and initiatives to support mothers-to-be amongst the Bengali community of Tower Hamlets.
I am sure you will want to join with me in congratulating colleagues at this fine achievement. And in congratulating the maternity team at Newham, too, for responding so magnificently to the warning notices issued last autumn with an urgent action plan that is already turning around the fortunes of a service with a particularly high profile. Newham is a young borough with a rapidly rising population, and more than 6,000 babies are born at the hospital every year. Midwives oversee a quarter of these cases, which is a higher proportion than the national average and recognised as best practice for mum and baby alike.
I’d also like to note how the CQC took the unusual step of calling out the leadership, energy and drive of one individual, our director of midwifery Gloria Rowland, for her personal role in leading the turnaround at Newham hospital. Thank you, Gloria, and thank you, too, to everyone across the Trust who contributed to achieving these latest milestones on our exciting improvement journey.
Alwen Williams, chief executive