Good care across the board at St Bartholomew's
Patients at St Bartholomew's Hospital are receiving safe, compassionate and innovative care with evidence of outstanding practice, says health regulator the CQC.
Following a visit in May 2017, CQC inspectors have given a 'good' rating in all hospital areas; medical care; surgery; critical care; outpatients and diagnostic imaging.
The hospital also achieved an ‘outstanding’ rating in the Well Led domain, with inspectors praising nursing and clinical leadership and reporting a positive and collaborative culture.
The CQC also saw evidence of outstanding practice, including providing early access to cancer medications through 'practice-changing' research trials.
Alwen Williams, Chief Executive at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: "Thanks to the dedication and hard work of our staff, the CQC has confirmed that we are delivering good standards of care for our patients across all services at St Bartholomew's. This is a truly excellent result, with inspectors praising the 'positive and collaborative' culture and outstanding nursing and medical leadership."
The good rating is testament to staff who worked tirelessly to integrate services and ensure seamless, high quality care following the transfer of The London Chest Hospital and The Heart Hospital to join cancer and cardiac services at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 2015.
Many areas of outstanding practice are highlighted in the report, including significantly faster care for patients who have had a heart attack compared to the rest of the country.
Other areas of outstanding practice are:
- A 24-hour telephone advice service for chemotherapy patients feeling unwell during or after their treatment
- A robotic surgery team being introduced offering less invasive cardiothoracic surgery leading to faster recovery times, minimised trauma and less pain
- St Bartholomew’s being the first site in Europe to perform Electromagnetic Navigation Bronchoscopy, and the only centre in the UK to offer it as a routine service.
Although proud of the report, staff are already making improvements in response to the inspectors’ findings. These include:
- Embedding guidelines to reduce the mortality of patients who develop sepsis
- Ensuring that understanding and learning from any never events is consistent across all of our services
- Putting in place contingency plans to reduce the risk of medicines management errors.
Steve Russell, NHS Improvement’s Executive Regional Managing Director (London), said: “I am pleased that the CQC’s report into St Bartholomew’s Hospital has resulted in the site getting a ‘Good’ rating overall. The hospital is delivering good standards of care across their services and staff can take pride in the fact that their hard work is making measurable positive improvements for patients.
“The CQC’s decision to rate the well-led domain in surgery and critical care as Outstanding reflects the genuine improvements which the leadership team have made. This is a major achievement in a short time and getting an ‘Outstanding’ for one aspect should enthuse staff to work towards achieving an overall rating of Outstanding for St Bartholomew’s.
“The report has clearly set out a number of improvements that still need to be made. We will continue to work closely with the trust to ensure the good work continues.”