BARNSLEY Hospital’s rating with health watchdog the Care Quality Commission has been raised to ‘good’ following a number of improvements.
Inspectors visited the urgent and emergency services, medical care, surgery and children and young people’s services.
It was rated as ‘requires improvement’ at the last inspection in 2015, but was now found to be good overall. There were even some areas of outstanding practice.
It was given good ratings for being effective, caring, responsive and well-led but it required improvement for being safe.
Although there had been some improvement in the areas of medicine and surgery, inspectors noted the provision for safe care for adults and children with mental health conditions was not robust enough.
Inspectors were not assured there were processes in place for the safe and effective management of sepsis in children, but the hospital produced a paediatric policy and pathway which now needs to be put into practice.
Staff said they understood their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children and young people, but inspectors were not assured that vulnerable children, particularly those with a mental health condition, would be identified by the trust in a timely or robust way.
But the report said: “Staff recognised and managed patient incidents well. There was a proactive approach to infection prevention and control, medicines were managed well and equipment was appropriately checked.
“Staff responded appropriately to the deteriorating patient and interventions were timely.”
Urgent and emergency services are now rated as good, and patients who do not attend by ambulance are now given an initial assessment by a qualified healthcare professional.
Surgery had improved from ‘requires improvement’ to good, and inspectors found the hospital investigated serious incidents thoroughly. Medical care is also rated as good, but children and young people’s services still require improvement.
Inspectors now want the hospital to ensure that in emergency services, staff are appropriately trained to support patients who attend with mental health problems.
The hospital’s chief executive Richard Jenkins and chairman Steve Wragg said in a statement: “We are delighted to be able to tell Barnsley people that we have been rated as ‘good’ overall.
“For us to have moved upwards from the rating of ‘requires improvement’ is a reflection of every single member of staff who works here providing services for the people of Barnsley and how we deliver services as a trust.
“The CQC said in its report that our staff care for patients with compassion, that they involve them and those close to them in decisions about their care and treatment and provide emotional support to patients to minimise their distress
“When talking about the hospital as a whole, they said the trust is to be congratulated for the dedication and hard work, this represents very good progress.
“We are incredibly proud of Barnsley Hospital and of our fantastic staff who make it what it is - we are a ‘good’ rated NHS hospital and that is by no means the norm. We know that we don’t always get everything right and this is why the CQC inspections are important; they help us to continue to improve and learn so the service you receive is the best it can be.
“We hope Barnsley people will join us in thanking our staff for their hard work in helping us to receive our rating of ‘good’ when they next visit us.
“Thank you for your continued support of our hospital.”
