Health Trust celebrates national first in “outstanding” rating

Staff at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust are celebrating today after being awarded an “outstanding” rating for their care – a first for a standalone NHS community Trust in England.

Full report here: https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RY3

Anna Morgan, Director of Nursing and Quality at NCH&C, said: “We are absolutely thrilled by the result of this report. To be rated as outstanding is a huge achievement and given the importance of community services in supporting children and families to get the best start in life, caring for the elderly and helping people maintain their independence for as long as possible – this is great news for Norfolk and Suffolk. I would like to take this opportunity to thank staff whose care and dedication has made this possible.”

The rating follows an inspection by the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England across NCH&C, which found that people in Norfolk are receiving good quality, effective health services with outstanding levels of care from a responsive and well-led community trust following an inspection earlier this year.

In its report into services provided by NCH&C, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rates the Trust overall as “outstanding” with an “outstanding” rating being achieved in two of the five regulatory criteria: delivering care; and being a well-led Trust.

The inspection, which took place in February and March this year, assessed in detail three of the service areas delivered by NCH&C: community health inpatient services; community health service for adults; and community health services for children, young people and families. The CQC also looked specifically at leadership and how the Trust used its resources.

In its report, the CQC highlights a number of areas of outstanding practice at the Trust, such as:

• The care and consideration shown to patients by staff. All multidisciplinary staff were observed to be courteous, professional and kind when interacting with patients. Patient feedback was consistently positive
• Strong collaboration, team working and support across all services with the patient as prime focus and common aim to improve the quality and sustainability of care
• Compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership at all levels

The report said: “On all the units we visited, staff were caring and compassionate towards patients. Staff treated patients with kindness, dignity and respect. We found that staff were sensitive to the needs of the patients and their families.”

“The Trust had clear strategic objectives that aligned with the vision and values of the organisation and the wider economy plan. The strategic objectives ensured focus on quality of care to patients, development of staff to provide care and future sustainability of services.”

Anna Morgan, Director of Nursing and Quality at NCH&C, continued: “The report highlights many areas for celebration, including tremendously positive comments about our staff and the outstanding levels of care and consideration shown to patients and their families. The Trust was found to have compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership at all levels.

“NCH&C staff work incredibly hard to bring our expert care to people in their communities, whether this is close to where they live and work, in our community hospitals, within GP surgeries and also in their own homes. The results of this report show that through strong collaboration, team working and support across all services, with the patient as prime focus, we are delivering excellent and effective services to the people living in Norfolk.”

“We are very grateful to the efforts our all our staff make every day to deliver the best possible care to patients, and this report is a reminder that all of us at NCH&C have much to be proud of.

“Whilst we are delighted with our outstanding rating we will be striving to continually improve especially in areas such as: increasing the completion rates of mandatory training by staff and; improving consistency in equipment service, maintenance checks and storage of medicines. We are already taking action to address these areas and will drive through further improvements over the coming weeks and months so that we continue to provide the highest possible standards of care to everyone using our services.”