Message from the acting Chief Executive – CQC inspection

September 4, 2018

Dear colleagues,

Today our annual CQC inspection begins.

You will have seen details of open forums for employees to go along and talk about the care we provide.  A chance of course to reflect on the issues we know about, like our IT problems, but also to get across the big changes made since last year, especially in medicine and in BMEC.

The inspection team are doing unannounced visits today and this week in medicine and emergency care at both City and Sandwell Hospitals.  Next week it could be somewhere else.  That means that they will be with us, night and day.  Please make sure that we help them, whilst maintaining patient confidentiality and making sure practices like bare-below-elbow standards are observed, by all of us, and by them.

We all know the NHS is working under sustained pressure.  Having invested in extra staffing, created our NIV unit, spent over £1m on training last year, got decent modern imaging kit with our MES, and achieved national accreditation in pathology and endoscopy, we have every reason to compare well to others.  Let’s stand up for our successes and show our best, whilst being open about what’s left to do.

The attached staff guide to inspections provides some helpful information, please share with colleagues.

Good luck.

Kam Dhami

Director of Governance