Weston General Hospital no longer rated 'inadequate' after latest inspection

Local health bosses have praised staff at Weston General Hospital for escaping its ‘inadequate’ rating from the Care Quality Commission – but there is still work to be done. Chief executive of the NHS trust that runs the hospital, Eugine Yafele, told a meeting on the board on Tuesday (13 December): “I absolutely want to congratulate the team at Weston […] on getting the hospital to be on a firm footing of recovery and improvement.” The CQC rated the hospital ‘requires improvement’ after an inspection in August, an improvement from its previous rating which was the lowest the health regulator can give. It found that the hospital’s facilities and how they were used did not always keep people safe and that staffing was stretched, although sufficient enough to keep patients safe. The hospital’s surgical unit and identification of blood clot risks were areas where improvement was found to be needed. Concerns were also raised about racist behaviour towards staff, highlighted as a priority to hospital leadership. But the report also found that staff provided good care, treated patients with kindness, and that the Weston General’s leaders had the skills to run the hospital well and were making improvements. Mr Yafele said: “What this also highlights is there is a steely determination, because the people who have done this are people at Weston, and actually ‘requires improvement’ is the start. I think their ambitions, and the ambitions we have for patients, are to go beyond that.”

Weston General merged with Bristol’s hospitals in 2020 to form one NHS trust. Chair of the trust’s board Jayne Mee said: “For many years, we hadn’t seen an improvement – and prior to us merging with the trust we hadn’t seen improvement. It’s now good that we are at least on that road but we realise there’s more to do.” The report set out areas where Weston General needed to improve. It said the hospital must make sure patients admitted to its surgical unit complied with the operating standards, after some confused patients who should not have been on the unit were admitted. It must also make sure the unit is fit for people to stay overnight, with access to showers and bedside lights. The hospital was also told it must carry out risk assessments for people in danger of blood clots, which staff had been failing to identify. Deputy Chief Nurse Sarah Dodds said: “There are three ‘must dos’ and seven ‘should dos’ in the action plan and they are all well underway.” But Chief Medical Officer Stuart Walker insisted: “I think its absolutely the case that there has been a very significant improvement. “Now, that may manifest itself – in CQC function and how they process things – as inadequate to our eye but there has been a major improvement in the quality of care being able to be offered there.”

Credit: John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporting Service