Wigan's main hospital maintains ‘good’ rating
But there are still some concerns over safety though.
The Care Quality Commission team visited the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in February and March.
Their report said that the overall rating for urgent and emergency care remained, although for safety bosses were told it had declined from ‘good’ to requires improvement.
In sub-categories of leadership, effective caring and responsiveness the hospital retained its rating as ‘good’.
The hospital’s overall rating is unchanged and remains rated as ‘good’, which was also the overall rating for the organisation which runs the hospital – Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust.
However, the CQC said the staff didn’t always start treatment for sepsis promptly and not all staff had completed mandatory training in areas such as resuscitation, safeguarding children, and paediatric resuscitation, and staff appraisals hadn’t always been carried out when they should.
Otherwise, people using the service spoke positively about staff, although they had concerns about the waiting times and the service’s communication, the report said.
Leaders ensured staff had the right skills and were recruited safely for their roles.
The service had the right policies and procedures in place to handle incidents. Safety incidents and complaints were treated as opportunities to put things right, learn and improve.
Staff understood the duty of candour and were open and honest with people and their families when things went wrong.
The CQC’s deputy director of operations in the north, Karen Knapton, said: “We found a positive culture where staff worked well together for the benefit of local people in a challenging environment.
“Leaders had the right skills and experience and managed the services well despite difficult circumstances, where resources and physical space were sometimes limited.
“They planned and delivered the services with people’s safety at the forefront and made sure lessons were learned when things went wrong.
“We found improvement was needed in some areas, such as the timeliness of the services and staff shortages. There weren’t enough consultants in the department and leaders hadn’t taken steps to address this risk quickly enough.
“In addition, we found people faced long delays for treatment, care, discharge and to be admitted to other areas of the hospital.”
Responding to the report, chief nursing officer, Kev Parker-Evans said: “ That our urgent and emergency services being rated ‘good’ is an excellent achievement in such a challenging environment. I’m extremely proud of all our colleagues and this overall rating reflects the excellent services they provide.”
“I am pleased the CQC has recognised our positive safety-focussed culture, and that our staff treat people with compassion, kindness and dignity. These are the values our Trust is based upon, and our staff work incredibly hard every day to put patients at the heart of all that they do.”
“There are still some things we need to improve upon, some of which we have already put in place since the CQC’s visit including refurbishments of our waiting room areas providing a better and safer environment for our patients and their families in their time of need.
“We would like to reassure the public and our patients that despite the pressures on our services, our commitment to deliver safe and effective care remains a priority.”