Isle of Wight NHS Trust has welcomed an improved rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after inspectors identified improvement in most of its services.
The report, which followed planned inspections of the Trust’s services in May, sees the Trust rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ overall.
The Trust improved or maintained its rating in all five of the CQC’s inspection areas – safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Oldham: Thanks to all for support
Maggie Oldham, Chief Executive at Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said:
“I want to thank all of our staff, our colleagues working in primary and social care, as well as our volunteers, patients and the local community for their support. It would not have been possible to start improving our services without them.
“Our improved rating from the CQC is welcome recognition of a great deal of hard work by a lot of people and I am particularly proud to be able to share the news that Community, End of Life Care, frontline ambulance services, NHS 111, and the Urgent Care Service have been rated ‘Good’.
“We of course recognise that there is still a lot of work to do. Everyone at the Trust is totally committed to delivering the improvement that local people rightly expect.”
Highlights from report
Inspectors highlighted a number of achievements in their latest report, including:
- The Patient Transport Service is again rated ‘Outstanding’ for Caring, with inspectors witnessing staff members going above and beyond the call of duty to care for our patients – including picking up shopping and taking people to the beach
- End of Life Care has significantly improved, with an overall rating of ‘Good’ and examples of innovative and outstanding practice in our partnership with Mountbatten Hospice
- Community services have significantly improved, with an overall rating of ‘Good’
- The Trust’s NHS 111, frontline ambulance and Urgent Care Service (out of hours) were all rated ‘Good’
- The Emergency Department rating has improved to ‘Requires Improvement’ and the conditions of a warning notice imposed in January 2019 were met
Urgent action being taken
While the Trust welcomed positive feedback about the improvements since the last inspection it is aware that there is a great deal of work still to do.
The Trust received an ‘Inadequate’ rating for Mental Health services and is taking immediate action in response to concerns raised by the CQC.
Similarly in our Acute services, where the CQC has rightly identified that some patients have been waiting too long for treatment, we will take urgent action to improve our performance.
To help build on the progress made in the last 12 months and to help increase the pace of improvement, the Trust is working with partners on the Island and the mainland.
Isle of Wight Health and Care Plan
Alongside the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Isle of Wight Council, it will publish the Isle of Wight Health and Care Plan in the coming days.
The plan sets out how health and care teams will work together to improve services and make them sustainable for future generations. A key part of the plan will be finding mainland NHS partners to support work to improve Mental Health and Acute services.
The above press release was issued by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust. Ed
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Auntie P
