Heartbeat: Creating a patient first culture with CQC assessments

October 22, 2021

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates health and social care services in England. The commission ensures the quality and safety of care in hospitals, dentists, ambulances, care homes, and the care given in people’s own homes. Ongoing assessments provide us with an opportunity to learn from the highlights of each inspection.

Our overall CQC rating is “requires improvement” and they rated our services as “outstanding” in the caring domain. We are working collectively to improve our rating and ensure that we deliver a consistent standard of care across all areas.

We caught up with the team in Lyndon 2 to find out how they have been working to enhance the care provided in their area. Amber Markham, Interim Group Director of Nursing, told us: “We held a mock internal inspection of Lyndon 2 so that we could understand how we are performing. A small team of colleagues volunteered to be part of a mock inspection team. The team observed practices on the ward and spoke to co-workers and patients about staff attitudes and behaviours, standards, their knowledge of policies and procedures, and leadership visibility.

“This was done as part of our weAssure programme led by Ruth Spencer. Teams are inspecting areas using a mock CQC inspection, highlighting areas for improvement and areas of good practice.

“Lyndon 2 received a “good” rating, with a couple of things to improve upon to be rated as outstanding. One area to improve on was the ability of some colleagues to articulate quality improvement work. Safety huddles and the mechanisms used to feedback information from incidents and complaints was praised.”

So what was the biggest takeaway from this process we asked? Amber explained: “Not being fearful of the process. It’s there to help your team identify areas for improvement and to celebrate excellence.”

Barbara Boparai, Senior Sister added that Lyndon 2 received praise for its safety huddles and sustainability during the mock inspections. She explained: “We recognise the importance of safety and the provision of safe, effective patient care.

“Our goal is to ensure that each patient is cared for in a respectful and dignified manner and to reduce their length of stay and get them back to health. We are patient advocates and, looking after our patients is our number one priority.”

Barbara added: “One of the ways we meet our standards of care is by holding frequent safety huddles. It allows patient safety issues to be communicated within our multidisciplinary team, allowing us to identify and address any concerns. Working in this way means that we can share experience and reach the most patient focused resolutions.

“Safety huddles are an essential part of what we do in Lyndon 2 – it’s a dynamic clinical environment that looks after patients admitted for surgical interventions such as general surgery, ENT and urology. For us to perform to a high standard, we need to ensure that colleagues have the knowledge and skills to perform in an ever changing NHS and a way to escalate and resolve any issues that impact patient care.”