"Requires improvement" CQC rating for Hinchingbrooke Hospital and NWAFT

The trust runs Hinchingbrooke, Peterborough City and Stamford and Rutland Hospitals. And was inspected between 30 July and 13 September this year.

Inspectors looked at Hinchingbrooke's service for children and young people because this had not been inspected since the provider took it over in April 2019.

It scored "good" for effectiveness and care but all other areas (safety, responsiveness and leadership) were rated "require improvement."

Overall at NWAFT, the trust retained its "good" rating for its service care but "requires improvement" in the other four areas, with its responsiveness rating falling from good at the last inspection. 

Requirement notices issued

The CQC has issued six requirement notices to the trust. This means the trust must send a report saying what action it is taking to meet these requirements.
These relate to breaches of legal requirements in the trust overall, urgent and emergency care, critical care, maternity and end of life care at Peterborough City Hospital, and urgent and emergency care at Stamford and Rutland Hospital. 
However, there were also some areas of outstanding practice at Peterborough and Stamford and Rutland Hospitals.

In a statement following the report's publication, NWAFT said it was disappointed by the outcome.  And reassured patients that it was committed to continuing to focus on areas that need further support and said it had already taken action on the areas where concerns have been raised.

Said NWAFT Chief Executive Caroline Walker and Chief Nurse Jo Bennis:

“Our staff continue to work incredibly hard under a huge amount of pressure to maintain a high standard of care for our patients and this is reflected in the areas rated as ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ and is something that we should celebrate.

"We will also continue to stage our own internal quality assessments as part of our ongoing commitment to quality of care and wish to congratulate all of those areas who have achieved an ‘outstanding’ rating as a result of this internal initiative."