St Luke’s Hospice is delighted to receive a
Care Quality Commission upgrade
On 20 April 2022, St Luke’s Hospice had a repeat unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to follow up on its findings in the areas of being Safe, Effective and Well Led from their previous inspection in October 2021. The Hospice is delighted to announce that it has subsequently received a new report and has been significantly upgraded with an overall rating of ‘Good’.
The October report had already commended the Hospice for the two areas of ‘Caring’ and ‘Responsiveness to people’s needs’ as being ‘Good’ but had also identified areas that required immediate improvement. As a consequence, two warning notices were issued which led to an automatic downgraded service rating of ‘Inadequate’. The Hospice was sorry and deeply disappointed by the downgrade, especially in light of its increased capacity during the pandemic but immediately began work addressing all identified areas of concern.
Staff have since been addressing the issues raised and have put in place measures that go wider than the CQCs recommendations on them, embedding them into daily practice. While a period of change and recruitment means leadership of the Hospice has also been upgraded but still ‘Requires Improvement’, the overall improvements have resulted in the two areas of being ‘Safe’ and ‘Effective’ now being upgraded to ‘Good’.
The report noted significant improvements in many areas including the following:
- Infection and prevention control audits now showing 100% compliance with all cleaning schedules
- That the Hospice not only has enough suitable equipment to help them to safely care for patients but that it has also invested in new equipment since the last inspection
- Improved guidelines around risk assessment and the introduction of nationally recognised tools for risk assessments
- Improved recording of patient care and treatment
- Comprehensive and regularly reviewed care plans
- Increased frequency and documentation of pain control checks including the introduction of a nationally recognised pain assessment tool
- Improved medicines management
- Improved care and treatment effectiveness audits achieving good outcomes for patients
Nicola Wise, CCQ’s head of hospital inspection for hospitals said:“I was pleased to see the levels of improvement at St Luke’s Hospice, which is good news for everyone being cared for there. The service listened to CQC’s concerns and has worked hard to rectify the issues raised. She added, “To improve an overall rating from inadequate to good is a significant achievement, and I congratulate staff and managers at the hospice for all their hard work to deliver safer care for people.”
Chief Executive of St Luke’s Hospice, Annie Webber, and Chairman, Gillian Schiller, commented: “We are so happy that the report recognises how hard our staff have worked and how effective they have been in making improvements across the whole Hospice. The Hospice is now on a mission to become ‘Outstanding’. We are immensely proud of everything we have achieved so far and promise to keep delivering excellence for the people of Harrow and Brent who we thank for their continued support.”
