Plymouth's Derriford Hospital 'requires improvement' according to watchdog

Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has been told it 'requires improvement', following an unannounced inspection by the health watchdog in Autumn 2021.

The latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report - which was published today (Wednesday 19 January) - found 'significant concerns and challenges in urgent and emergency care and medical care'.

Inspectors say this is largely impacted by the challenges within the wider health and social care system.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust say the report acknowledges that they 'cannot solve the challenge of meeting urgent and emergency care needs alone'.

Derriford has recently seen long waits for patients, particularly in ambulances - and they say they are 'doing everything to reduce these'.

Some improvements were made, with teams improving their leadership rating to 'good'. They have also once again been rated as 'outstanding' for caring.

The Trust say that they are already making improvements and are working on more things for the future. Work currently underway includes:

• A new incident dashboard is now in place showing the number of patients in the ED, Ambulance handover delays, patients awaiting admission, To improve information sharing

• Emergency Services nursing recruitment day held in September 2021 with 28 appointments made across band 2 – 5 nursing staff , leading to over recruitment to band 2s

• Nursing development programme in place for Emergency Services to support junior band 6 staff

Their next steps are:

• Investing more than £5m in recruiting more nurses and £4.7m in pharmacy staff

• Plans to develop a new Urgent and Emergency Care Centre

• Moving forward with their Digital Strategy

• Working closer with GPs and colleagues in the community to join up care for patients and their families

Chief Executive, Ann James, said: "We are extremely proud of how our #1BigTeam has responded to the pandemic and continues to respond to the ongoing demand for healthcare at a difficult time.

"We will continue to make improvements to provide the best care possible to our patients and their families."

Ann James - CEO of University Hospitals Plymouth

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