Hospital ‘Good Overall’, But Inspection Report Calls For Improvements

Published on: 20 Dec, 2013
Updated on: 21 Dec, 2013

Care at Guildford’s Royal Surrey County Hospital has been rated as “good overall”, but waiting times in A&E and delays in pain management have been found to be below par.

The Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.

Care Quality Commission inspectors visited the hospital on October 17, 18 and 23, and their latest report, published this week, is based on those visits.

The report concludes that the Royal Surrey provides services and care that are safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led. The chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “Overall we judge this to be a good hospital.”

The chief executive of the Royal Surrey, Nick Moberley, has responded by saying said: “As a board we firmly believe that our hospital is a reflection of our people. The inspection team found our hospital’s culture to be open, transparent and supportive and our staff to be positive and engaged.

“They witnessed good overall leadership at a local level and innovative work at ward level to continually improve patients’ experience. We are a listening organisation and value the thoughts and ideas of our staff. We promote an environment of continuous improvement to help us to deliver our vision of providing the best care, anywhere.”

In the sections of the report that highlighted areas of the hospital where improvements must be made, the Royal Surrey has said that for the majority of those which the trust had already identified, action plans are in place.

The report noted that the eye outpatient service was overcrowded. Mr Moberly said “I recognise that some of our outpatient departments are not working as effectively as they need to be at the moment and we are working extremely hard to address this.

“In ophthalmology we have a rigorous action plan in place which will see a radical redesign of the service that will focus on the patient’s experience, how we staff the department, what back-office processes could be improved upon and by autumn next year a refurbished department that works effectively for patients and staff.”

The hospital’s director of nursing and patient experience, Louise Stead, said: “It’s all about the people at the front line and how we support them to deliver their best every day. We have such a great team at the Royal Surrey and our matrons and senior nurses, along with skilled clinical directors and managers provide a critical link between the executive leadership team and our frontline clinical and non-clinical staff.”

The report highlighted the Royal Surrey’s modern and well-equipped children’s unit and the good and effective leadership of its maternity service and also praised the hospital’s nurse-led cancer clinics, breast cancer services and hepatobiliary cancer services.

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