City hospital bosses want to see the inspectors return soon.
The Royal Victoria Infirmary hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne.(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
NHS bosses in Newcastle are hoping to see a Care Quality Commission inspection sooner rather than later after news that the city’s hospital trust has moved out of a level of regulatory oversight imposed following a shock inspection in 2023 which saw it lose its “outstanding” rating. Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust bosses said this wasn’t a “champagne moment” but signified progress.
The hospital trust – which manages the Freeman and RVI hospitals – recently published a “leadership review” produced by external firm Grant Thornton which highlighted “substantial progress” since the 2023 inspection. However, it is not known when the Care Quality Commission inspectors will return to the city – so it is also unknown when the “requires improvement” rating it currently has could change.
The CQC does not inform hospital trusts or care providers of its plans – though health bosses are aware it uses a “risk assessment” methodology to decide when and where to prioritise its resources. In Newcastle, hospital board chair Sir Paul Ennals said last week at a meeting held in public: “We are one of the few organisations in the country who really want the CQC to come back.”
The same meeting saw acting chief executive Rob Harrison highlight how progress had been made – and some of the oversight mechanisms in place had now been stood down. He said: “Colleagues will be aware that following the CQC report in 2024 we went into formal regulatory oversight. We were assessed by our regulators and can now be stood down from that process after two years.
“It means we are back on a level playing field. It’s good news but it’s not a champagne moment – and we recognise there is more to do.”
He also took the opportunity to thank staff for their work during a busy winter period. Mr Harrison added: “I want to do is to say a big thank you to all of our colleagues. Since the last public board meeting it has continued to be a very busy period in terms of emergency pressures – the increased attendances through our new Urgent Treatment Centre and our Emergency Department – and also the the work that has been going on through the elective sprint which has seen us taking the opportunity to treat as many patients as possibly they can ahead of the end of the financial year.”
The new UTC opened in January, while work to bring down waiting lists, the meeting heard, has seen the overall number of people waiting for elective procedures in the city fall to around 82,000.
One area, however, where Mr Harrison highlighted a need to improve was in terms of “staff experience” as highlighted by “disappointingly static” results in the annual staff survey.
He said: “Our patient experience results are top quartile but our staff experience results are bottom quartile.” Mr Harrison said executives wanted to see the staff experience results improve in order to “mirror” the patient experience success.
Separately, as reported by ChronicleLive, the hospital trust has seen extra scrutiny imposed by NHS England in regard to its cancer diagnosis performance in particular. The board meeting heard how many skin cancer patients were waiting longer than the targeted 28 days for a definitive answer as to whether they had the illness – and this had a disproportionate impact on wider performance.
At the time the CQC’s inspection report was published in January 2024, newly-appointed chief executive Sir Jim Mackey told ChronicleLive “urgent action” was underway to improve matters. Though he has been seconded to lead NHS England for more than a year now, the leadership review produced by Grant Thornton backed the work that has taken place under his leadership and that of his acting replacement Mr Harrison.
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