The hospital’s surgery services were last inspected in 2019
King’s College Hospital is located in Denmark Hill, Southwark (Image: Google Street View )
Surgical care at a South London hospital has been upgraded to ‘Good’ following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in April this year. Surgery services at King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill were previously rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ following a 2019 inspection, but have now improved to ‘Good’ seven years later.
The hospital is part of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and offers a wide range of hospital services to Southwark and Lambeth residents. CQC carried out a short notice on-site inspection on April 14 and 15 due to “aged ratings” and concerns about culture, while remote interviews took place from April 15 to April 23.
Antoinette Smith, CQC deputy director of hospitals in London, said King’s College Hospital had made “significant improvements” to their surgery services and were now providing consistently high-quality care.
Ms Smith said: “At our last inspection, we found shortfalls in training for medical staff, which was now improving. Although further work was still needed, leaders made sure their staff had the immediate training and support they needed to care for people safely.
“We found staff worked closely with people to understand their needs and preferences and tailored their care accordingly. They were kind and respectful throughout and people told us they felt safe and well cared for.”
She went on to say: “It was clear that leaders understood the service well, including a few larger areas that still needed some improvement, such as the number of staff and long waits for certain procedures. Leaders were addressing safety risks from and proactively working on those areas.”
According to a report which was published on July 30, inspectors visited several wards and the surgical ambulatory care unit (SACU) as well as theatres and recovery areas including the surgical admissions lounge, the discharge lounge and the day surgery unit.
They spoke with than 80 members of staff, including nursing and medical staff, operating department practitioners, health professionals, pharmacists, healthcare assistants, housekeeping staff, and managers.
A care group and division leads were also spoken to, alongside over 21 patients and their relatives. Inspectors also reviewed 25 patient records.
During their assessment, inspectors said improvements had been made to medical staff mandatory training rates. They also found there had been a culture of learning and improvement, and staff and teams worked well to deliver good person-centred care.
They said staff were kind, caring and compassionate and there were clear governance systems in place to manage risk and a focus on improving performance.
Patients who spoke to inspectors were very positive about their experience and felt safe and cared for and said the service was responsive in meeting their needs. Patients were given pain relief and said staff were kind and caring.
However, inspectors said risks to people had not been consistently assessed and mitigated and there were regular staffing shortages on wards. The service was also not always easy to access and patients at times experienced long waits for their surgery.
Overall though, surgery services had made improvements from the 2019 inspection and it is no longer in breach of the legal regulation relating to staffing.
The hospital received an overall ‘Good’ rating and was also rated ‘Good’ in the following areas; Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-led.
Matthew Trainer, Chief Executive of the Trust, said it was “great to see the hard work of our teams recognised” and said patients should feel confident they will receive high-quality surgical care when they come to King’s.
Mr Trainer added: “The feedback from the inspection team is positive and reflects lots of hard work. It shows we have a learning culture in surgery, and that staff are committed to listening to patients and doing their very best for them.
“It was lovely to read the feedback from patients about our staff, who described their care as ‘great’, ‘wonderful’, ‘professional and kind’.”
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