Trust warmly welcomes positive CQC report

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust today warmly welcomed its latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings, which show the Trust is well-led, and offers safe, caring, responsive and effective services.

For well-led and use of resources [1], the CQC rated the Trust as ‘Outstanding’.  The Chelsea and Westminster site achieved ‘Outstanding’ and the West Middlesex University Hospital was rated ‘Good’.

Maternity and Critical Care at both sites were the focus of clinical inspection.

• Maternity at the Chelsea site has been rated ‘Good’ overall, and Maternity at the West Middlesex site has been rated ‘Outstanding’ overall.
• Critical Care at the Chelsea site has been rated ‘Outstanding’ overall, and Critical Care at the West Middlesex site has been rated ‘Good’ overall.

Chief Executive Lesley Watts said: “Our Maternity and Critical Care colleagues really demonstrated to inspectors how they prioritise the delivery of high quality care to our patients every day. Both services across our sites should be justifiably proud of these results, which is testament to your hard work and commitment.”

“On behalf of the Trust Board, I’d like to thank our staff and volunteers who have worked so hard this year.  We rely heavily on the magnificent support we get from our charity CW+, our Friends, Governors and Members, and so many other partners.  The CQC said that  staff were “proud to work for the Trust” and we are proud of you.

Chairman of the Trust Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett added: “I am so delighted that through hard work and adherence to our values we have demonstrated such significant improvement in the care that we provide to so many people everyday. Every member of our staff and volunteers should be very proud of what they have achieved.  But under Lesley Watts’ leadership, as a Board, we will never be fully satisfied, always striving for continuous improvement in every interaction we have with our patients and indeed with our own staff.’

• View the CQC report

Why Well-Led and Use of Resources matter

The ‘Well-Led’ rating for the organisation has improved from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’. Inspectors highlighted that the Trust is an organisation with a clear vision for what it wants to achieve, which has been developed with staff, patients, and key groups representing the local community. The Trust has been commended for having a leading role in the development and improvement of services across North West London. Inspectors found there was a ‘no blame’ culture and mistakes were regarded as opportunities for learning and improvement.

The Trust maintained our rating of ‘Outstanding’ for Use of Resources. This is a testament to how hard corporate, operational and clinical teams are working together to deliver high quality of care within the resources available.