Care Quality Commission inspection

The Trust welcomes the publication of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) latest report into its services, which rates them as good and highlights many areas of outstanding practice.

The CQC Summary Report for GOSH 2018 is based on a previous inspection of all core services and more recent inspections of the outpatients and surgery departments and assessment against the well-led dimension. New findings from the latest inspection mean that the organisation remains rated as good overall.

View the full report and summary report on the CQC website.

Across the five CQC domains Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) was rated outstanding for the caring nature and effectiveness of its services and good for being safe and responsive. It was seen as requiring improvement in relation to being well-led.

Areas of outstanding practice seen on the most recent visit included:

• innovative measures to improve the experience of patients with learning difficulties
• work by staff to involve young people in decisions about their care
• the empathy and sensitivity staff showed to patients and their families when breaking bad news
• the extensive range of non-clinical, holistic services in place to help patients recover
• the sharing of information about rare diseases with international colleagues to find new treatments and cures.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Chief Executive, Dr Peter Steer, said: “Our mission ‘the child first and always’ is at the heart of everything we do and our staff should be very proud that the CQC received only positive comments from patients or their carers about our people throughout this inspection.

"We remain proud to be judged as outstanding for the effectiveness and caring nature of our services and are pleased that our services are rated as good for being responsive and safe.

"We acknowledge when looking at leadership throughout the organisation and how we manage the governance of our services we require further improvement. However, we have made progress in addressing some of our biggest challenges. This includes turning around the way we manage our waiting time data so it is transparent and reliable and ensures we are meeting all national targets and treating patients on time. This is demonstrated by the fact that in the month of the CQC inspection we had the most improved performance for referral to treatment times in the country. We have also conducted a lengthy and complex review into our gastroenterology service which is now driving through improvements in care and patient experience.

“Additionally, we have appointed a highly experienced and talented Chair in Sir Mike Rake to succeed our previous Chair.

“One area of particular importance, and where we know we have work to do, is around improving nurse morale. We recognise the issues raised in the CQC report and our new Chief Nurse Alison Robertson is fully aware that the development of a strong nurse voice is a priority.”

The Trust is in the process of compiling a comprehensive action plan to address the issues that continue to require attention.

You can also view the full report and summary report on the CQC website.