Inspection report hails ‘Outstanding’ staff at RJAH

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) has been rated as ‘Good’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and ‘Outstanding’ for caring – in an inspection report published today.

Inspectors took a forensic look at all of the Oswestry-based Trust’s core services during the inspection in November last year, and followed that up with a leadership check in December called a Well Led Review – for which the Trust was also rated ‘Good’.

The CQC rates services by classifying them as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate against five criteria to determine whether services are safe, effective, caring responsive and well-led.

And the findings published today show significant improvement for the specialist orthopaedic hospital, which was rated ‘Requires Improvement’ when its last inspection was published in March 2016. The Trust’s rating for patient safety rating has also increased to ‘Good’.

The report reserves special praise for the overall outstanding care that was observed, noting that “staff exceeded the expectations of patients and family members in their passion for patient care.”

It adds that “staff worked in a creative and innovative manner to provide exceptional, strong and caring emotional support that exceeded patients’ expectations to minimise their distress.”

Examples of outstanding practice were observed in medical care, children and young people services and diagnostic imaging.

Mark Brandreth, Chief Executive at RJAH, said: “I am delighted for our fantastic staff, who really deserve to receive a CQC Report like this.

“It is rich in detail about the many examples of outstanding practice that the inspectors observed during their time with us, and it made me so proud to read it. I truly believe they are the best staff in the NHS.

“The Trust has come a long way in a short period of time. We recognised the issues that saw us rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ three years ago, and have worked hard to address them. It is wonderful that this has now been recognised by the CQC.

“We will not sit back and rest on our laurels with this report. I know that all our people will want to keep going with our journey of improvement. We aspire to deliver world class patient care, and we will continue on that path.”

Bev Tabernacle, Director of Nursing, added: “It makes me so proud to read this report and see the work we have all done together being recognised by our inspectors. It reflects what our own patients have been consistently telling us.

“We have focused on how we monitor quality standards of patient care, through a process called Sustaining Quality Through Assessment and Review (STAR), and developed processes to make sure we are an organisation that really learns from incidents.

“It is also so pleasing that inspectors have recognised how our staff have consistently involved and empowered patients and those close to them as active partners in their care and treatment.

“It also gives us areas of improvement, and we recognise those. We have already begun to address them to ensure we continue to grow and thrive.”

Frank Collins, Chair of the Trust, said: “This is an exceptional report which really captures the improvements we have made over the last three years, and the positive impact that is having on the care of our patients.

“I would like to offer my congratulations to all of our staff for their hard work and enthusiasm. I would also like to thank my fellow Non-Executive Directors, as well as the Executive Team, for the leadership they have shown.”