Assessment finds good practice and areas needing improvement at Hinchingbrooke Hospital

Hinchingbrooke Hospital has had its first assessment of its care since the Care Quality Commission’s inspection last September.

The CQC’s damning report, published in January, led to the Huntingdon hospital being put in to special measures. And on the day it was published, the private company which was running the trust, Circle, announced it was withdrawing.

The inspection was conducted by the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) and, while their full report has yet to be published, initial feedback indicates that Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust has improved in many areas. Five teams visited a number of clinical areas at the hospital, as well as consulting staff and patients.

A TDA spokesman said: “We found some good practice in the urgent care pathway and identified areas for further development. We will be reviewing findings with the Trust and health colleagues over the coming weeks and continue to work closely with the team to support them in delivering further improvements under their quality improvement plan.”

Trust chief executive Hisham Abdel-Rahman said: “We have now achieved two thirds of the milestones in our quality improvement plan.

“This is a significant point to reach in a relatively short period of time and a testament to the hard work of all the staff and stakeholders involved in helping us deliver these improvements.”

The trust has achieved 88 per cent of its targets in infection control, 71 per cent in safeguarding and 70 per cent for staffing, though has only managed 39 per cent for care and welfare of patients.

“While there are some areas for improvement,” said Mr Abdel-Rahman, “they were impressed by our urgent care pathway, which was raised as an area for improvement by the CQC.”

The trust’s plans for the coming months include the introduction of a new dementia policy, a business case to improve palliative care and the launch of a new mixed sex accommodation protocol.