'Significant improvements' in Shropshire community healthcare
Significant improvements have been made in the quality of community healthcare in Shropshire, a new report has revealed.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (Shropcom) 'required improvement' when it carried out an inspection in 2016.
Inspectors at that time found some parts of the trust were understaffed, there were concerns surrounding minor injury units and there was no overall strategy for end of life care.
But in a new report, published today following the most recent inspection, the CQC has rated the trust as 'good' across all six core services.
Inspectors said the 'trust had a clear vision and strategy for what it wanted to achieve' and managers focus on ensuring staff are supported and valued.
However, the trust was also told to make some improvements.
The CQC issued a requirement notice to the trust, relating to a breach of legal requirements under community health services for children, young people and families.
Shropcom was told it must ensure safe and effective medicines management systems are in place at a school, but the trust says this has now been addressed.
The trust was also advised to improve in areas surrounding staff training, to take action to further reduce patients falls within inpatient services and continue to develop the electronic patient record system.
Jan Ditheridge, the trust's chief executive, said the findings should give patients 'real confidence that they are in good hands with Shropcom'.
She said: "This is the result of a lot of hard work and committed people making sure we learn from the last visit.
"There were a number of things we knew we wanted to do.
"What we have done is think about the leadership throughout the organisation and how we work with people to improve their working lives; to support people to have methods of constant improvement. We have been thinking how they can work more effectively.
"One of the key areas we were disappointed about last time was our end of life care, we hadn't got a strategic direction.
"We've spent a lot of time and effort refocussing that.
"Another area is our community hospitals have become very vibrant community hubs."
She said while plans were being developed to remodel hospital services in the county, the trust has also been thinking about how community healthcare will change.
Ms Ditheridge said: "We have been making sure our services are as good as they can be. We are working with partners on ideas about how we can support people to stay well in the community."
Improvement
She said the trust welcomed all feedback from the CQC and any areas of improvement have been integrated into its action plans.
Steve Gregory, director of nursing, said the trust had come a long way in a short period of time.
He added: "There was much about this organisation that was already good back in 2016, but we also welcomed the feedback we received on areas where we needed to improve.
“Much of that work was already under way, and we really upped the pace in the last few years to get us to the position we are in today, where all of our core services are rated as ‘good’. Now we will make sure we do not rest on our laurels. We must aim to keep improving.”
The trust provides a range of community-based health services for adults and children in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and some services to people in surrounding areas.
The services range from district nursing and health visiting, to physiotherapy and specialist community clinics.
It also looks after almost 100 inpatient beds across four community hospitals.
The latest inspection was carried out between January and March.
The CQC rates services by classifying them as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate against five criteria to determine whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
