Archived: Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust

Updated 18 January 2018

Not used

Updated 18 January 2018

Our rating of the trust stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

Safe was requires improvement, effective, caring, responsive and well led were good.

Our inspection of the core services covered Ipswich hospital and Community In patient services at Aldeburgh Community Hospital, Bluebird Lodge Community Hospital and Felixstowe Community Hospital. Our decisions on overall ratings take into account, for example, the relative size of services and we use our professional judgement to reach a fair and balanced rating.

Ipswich hospital

• Urgent and emergency care went down from outstanding to good overall. The question of safety went down from good to requires improvement. Responsive and Well Led went down from outstanding to good. There were concerns with safety aspects relating to equipment monitoring, maintenance, and risk assessment processes for the environment. Service performances against national standards were variable and the department was in the process of transition and was introducing a new model of nursing leadership.
• Medicine services remained rated as good overall, with all five questions remaining good. Safety and delivery of the service and outcomes for patients remained good, with some innovative developments in older people’s services. Patients’ needs were met and treatment delivered by well-trained competent caring staff. However there were some improvements required with ensuring the accuracy of venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessments.
• Services for children and young people had improved from requires improvement to good overall. The question of safety remained requires improvement, effective and well led had improved to good with caring and responsive retaining a good rating. There were concerns around medication storage, documentation completion by medical staff and safeguarding training to level three. However the trust had taken steps to improve the critical care pathway for children, with clarity now around patient flow and competent staffing to provide care to seriously ill children. A change in leadership had resulted in a more visible cohesive team.
• End of life care remained rated as good overall, with the effective rating improved from requires improvement to good. The documentation was now in line with National guidance, individualised care planning had been introduced and discussions with patients and families regarding end of life care planning decisions had improved. However there were shortfalls in monitoring of incidents specifically relating to EoLC and how many patients achieved their preferred place of care and preferred place of death.
• On this inspection we did not inspect surgery, critical care, maternity, and outpatients. The ratings we gave to these services on the previous inspection in January 2015 are part of the overall rating awarded to the trust this time.

Community Inpatient service

• Community inpatient services had not been inspected and rated previously. Safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led were all rated as good. Care was provided in line with national and best practice guidelines. Patients’ needs were met and there was clarity regarding management responsibility with engaged local leadership. However we also found that IT systems, at the time of inspection, did not allow staff to access the trust intranet. In some locations the vacancy rate was high and not all risk management processes were embedded.
• On this inspection we did not inspect community health services for adults or urgent care. These services had not been inspected previously therefore there is no rating provided.

Updated 18 January 2018

Updated 18 January 2018

Updated 18 January 2018

We had not rated community services before. We rated community services as good because:

•We rated safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led as good

A summary of our findings about this service appears in the Overall summary