Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 19 April 2024 at 22:27
During last year, we know many of you found our regular Need To Know Now (NTKN) updates useful as a quick snapshot of what was happening around the Trust. With so much improvement work currently taking place, and the prospect of a further CQC Core Inspection in the future, we’re bringing back NTKN on a weekly basis to help keep everyone updated on our improvement journey.
Improvement areas
As a healthcare organisation, our primary role is to provide a safe, high-quality service for our patients and delivering the best possible outcomes. Everything we do is focused on ensuring this is the case and enabling our staff to support our patients in the best way possible.
The test of how well we do this is the CQC inspection, which looks at the way in which we deliver the services to our patients. The CQC monitor and inspect health and social care facilities to ensure the care we provide meets the appropriate safety and quality standards and that staff have the appropriate levels of support.
Following our 2019 inspection, despite finding that our patient care was outstanding, many other areas were found to be needing improvement. A subsequent focused inspection in 2020 found fundamental issues surrounding the leadership within the Trust and resulted in us being placed into special measures. You can read the report here.
Since then, we have been working tirelessly to meet the list of ‘must do’ and ‘should do’ requirements outlined in both reports and, whilst the actual date of our next inspection is not known, we anticipate it will be soon. Preparations are well underway, but an important part is ensuring that our staff understand the progress we’ve made in terms of systems, teams and processes that help us deliver a safe, effective, high quality and compassionate service.
When they return, the inspectors will, once again, be looking at five key areas: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led. These are known as the Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs). Over the coming weeks, our weekly updates will share with you the progress we have made, and are continuing to make, across the Trust in each of these five areas.
Safe
This week, our improvement focus is Safe, defined by the CQC as being protected from abuse and avoidable harm. The reporting of incidents, the way we learn from events and improvements in safety demonstrated through understanding safe practices are all fundamental to the questions the CQC may ask the organisation, or individual staff members, during their visit.
This week the Trust is supporting the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global event, World Patient Safety Day by holding a Patient Safety Week. We are celebrating what the Trust has achieved over the past year to meet the five WHO Patient Safety goals from 2020-2021, ‘Speak up for Health Worker Safety’. The five goals included better support for workplace stress, focusing on how we manage sharps injuries and improving the use of PPE. You can find out about the goals and how we met them here.
On World Patient Safety Day itself (17th September), we will be focusing on the 2021-2022 goal 'Safe Maternal and Newborn Care' which we are marking by holding our own ‘Maternity Masterclass.’ The sessions we are offering across the week encourage you to stay safe and work safely.
And finally
If there is a particular improvement area you would like to see covered in future NTKN updates, then please contact the clinical team at CQCgroup@eastamb.nhs.uk. We would welcome your thoughts, questions and feedback. One of the team will endeavour to respond within a few days of your request.
14th September 2021