Nottinghamshire Healthcare, one of the leading mental health and learning disability providers in the country, today welcomed the publication of the Annual Health Check by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), receiving the rating of Good for ‘quality of services’ and Good for ‘use of resources’. The ‘Quality of Services’ has dropped from Excellent last year, due to the Trust’s own concerns around Healthcare Acquired Infection and its commitment to improving performance in this area. The ‘use of resources’ is maintained at good.
The Annual Health Check is the most comprehensive assessment of the performance of NHS Trusts across England. Trusts are scored on many aspects of their performance, including the quality of services they provide to patients and the public, and how well they manage their resources.
Earlier this year the Trust’s Risk Management Committee found evidence of a lapse on standards with regard to healthcare acquired infections following an unannounced inspection from the Healthcare Commission in February 2009. The Trust Board made the decision to openly declare non compliance, which meant that the Trust could not be awarded Excellent for quality of services. The new plans to ensure compliance were achieved before the 31 March 2009, allowed the Trust to now declare itself compliant with those standards.
Auditors for the Trust stated that the maintenance of such strong performance across all areas of the Auditor’s Local Evaluation (ALE) assessment was to be applauded. Notable practice was demonstrated in two specific areas; financial standing, where the Trust was able to show a range of actions to ensure sound financial management and also the engagement of service users, carers, local organisations and the wider community in decision making in the Trust. Notable practice is awarded where organisations are able to demonstrate performance at the highest possible level with evidence of effective notable practice when compared to other Trusts.
Mike Cooke, Chief Executive of the Trust, says: “We are very pleased with the results of the Annual Health Check, highlighting some significant areas of good practice, as well as some areas that need more work. We have consolidated progress on our quality, demonstrated in the publication of our first Quality Account this year – two years ahead of it becoming mandatory. We know that we need to up our game and consolidate our progress on quality and that is one of the challenges of the coming year.
“We knew that by declaring our own non compliance with the Hygiene Code we could not achieve an excellent. However it is important that we are honest when there are failings and we responded very quickly and strongly to the findings of the Healthcare Commission. I am confident that we have addressed areas of concern and are now fully compliant. Our consultation around Foundation Trust Equivalence and our Annual General Meeting, which attracted 585 guests, demonstrate our commitment to and engagement with local people, whether they use our services or not. Thanks must also go to our staff who work so hard to deliver the best quality services they can to our service users and their carers. I look forward to the coming year and the challenge to maintain and improve our standards.”
The performance results for all NHS Trusts are available on the Healthcare Commission’s website at www.healthcarecommission.org.uk
