The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated medical care services at Cheltenham General Hospital in Gloucestershire, as good following a focused inspection in July last year.
CQC inspected following concerns it received about staffing and the culture at the service. The inspection only looked at a limited number of areas related to these concerns. CQC found these concerns were unsubstantiated.
The medical care services at Cheltenham General Hospital includes general medicine, specialist oncology, a hyper stroke unit (providing specialist services for people who have had a stroke), gastrointestinal and hepatology (liver services).
Cheltenham General Hospital is run by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The service’s ratings were unaffected by the small number of areas assessed at this inspection. As well as the service being rated good again overall, it was also rated as good again for being safe, caring, and responsive.
Inspectors found:
- The service had a good safety culture where leaders investigated incidents and shared learnings to promote good practice.
- People using the service said staff were understanding and non-judgemental, and that they felt able to raise concerns if needed.
- Leaders ensured that across the service there were enough skilled and experienced staff at the service to meet people’s needs. Agency and bank staff were available when needed, and vacancies were being covered until recruitment had finished.
- Inspectors saw staff treating people with kindness and compassion and respecting their dignity and privacy.
- Staff on all wards worked well together to provide care that was consistent and met people’s individual needs.
- Staff involved people using the service and their loved ones in decisions about their care and treatment. One person said staff had even involved their partner in conversations about rehabilitation and goal setting.
- People’s hydration and nutrition needs were met, including those related to their culture and religion.
- Staff could use translation services and reasonable adjustments were made for people with a disability or additional needs to access the service.
- The environment was clean in all areas inspectors visited.
- Most staff told inspectors they felt well supported by leaders and their training needs were being met, however staff on Woodmancote ward said there was a long delay for a course in catheter care and 15 staff needed this training.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the coming days.
Due to a large-scale transformation programme at CQC, this report has not published as soon after the inspection as it should have done. The programme involved changes to the technology CQC uses but resulted in problems with the systems and processes rather than the intended benefits. The amount of time taken to publish this report falls far short of what people using services and the trust should be able to expect and CQC apologises for this.
While publication of some reports has been delayed, any immediate action that CQC needed to take to protect people using services will not have been affected and acted on appropriately. CQC is taking urgent steps to ensure that inspection reports are published in a much timelier manner.