Agenda item

Report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships and presentation by Sue Jacques, Chief Executive of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

The Committee considered a Report of Director of the Transformation and Partnerships and presentation from the Chief Executive of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust an update in respect of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection improvement Action Plan of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Chief Executive gave a detailed presentation that highlighted:-

·         CQC Assessment for Darlington, Durham and Community Hospitals

·         Context of the findings – e.g. 80% of indicators were good

·         Ratings Distribution

·         The Services that required improvement/ Trust-wide areas

·         A&E Urgent Care – key actions completed prior to receipt of report and subsequently

·         End of Life – key actions completed prior to receipt of report and subsequently

·         Medicine & NIV & Critical Care – key actions completed prior to receipt of report and subsequently

·         The Acute Intervention Team

·         The developed solution

·         Training & integration

·         What they will do?

·         Record Keeping, Care Planning & Ward Management – key actions completed prior to receipt of report and subsequently

·         Governance & Strategy

·         Where we are now

·         Remaining Actions

·         Monitoring & Assurance Processes

·         Quality Matters/ Care Quality Improvement Framework

The Chief Executive concluded that all actions identified were complete or near-complete and that the ambition remains to move from good to outstanding.

The Chairman thanked the Chief Executive for her presentation.

Councillor Armstrong asked when the CQC would be returning to carry out a further inspection and further asked if the Trust were confident that actions had been put into place.  The Chief Executive advised that the Trust had asked the CQC to return but as they must give 100 days’ notice of a visit it would not be early this year.  The Trust were keen to go through the process again and believed that the CQC must be comfortable with that they were putting the actions into place.  The Trust had carried out their own internal inspection and had arranged for an external partner to carry out an inspection.

The Chairman said that it was frustrating as the public should be able to have sight of a follow up report that gave the assurances that things had been put right.  It would also give staff a pat on the back.  He added that good news did not seem to be reported but that any problems within the system are slated by the media and no follow up reports are ever carried out to see what improvements had been made.

Councillor Nicholls congratulated the Chief Executive for an excellent presentation and said that the information should be sent to the media.

The Chief Executive said that she would circulate their Board report to Members so that they could see the good news stories.

Councillor Bell felt that the 2 year cycle of inspections was unsatisfactory as the positives should be reassuring the public.  He said that he would continue to hold the Trust to account but fully supported the report.

The Chairman suggested that the Committee send a letter to the Trust to commend the progress made and to congratulate them on the direction of travel.  The Committee fully endorsed the actions taken by the Trust.

Resolved:

(i)            That the contents of the report and presentation be noted.

(ii)          That the Committee commend and fully endorse the actions taken by the Trust to improve the quality and performance.