CQC finds Pennine Acute Trust 'Requires Improvement'

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that safety, effectiveness and responsiveness at The Royal Oldham and North Manchester General hospitals  'Requires Improvement'.

Whilst 70% of services have shown improvement since the last inspection, overall, the rating of the Pennine Acute Trust was 'Requires Improvement' following an unannounced inspection of services carried out in October/November 2017.

The Pennine Acute Trust (PAT), now part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group with Salford Royal, runs four hospitals and a range of community services serving the communities of Rochdale, Oldham, North Manchester, and Bury. 

Hospital Ratings

• The Royal Oldham Hospital – Rated Requires Improvement
• North Manchester General Hospital – Rated Requires Improvement
• Fairfield General Hospital, Bury – Rated Good

The CQC did not inspect Rochdale Infirmary or Community Services.

The CQC found ten areas of notable outstanding practice, including that the Trust had implemented the Nursing and Accreditation system across all sites. This is a nationally recognised assessment tool designed to support nurses in practice to understand how they deliver care, identify what works well and where further improvements are needed. All wards had been assessed and reassessed and there was clear evidence of improvement with the introduction of this system.

Commenting on the CQC Inspection Report Sir David Dalton, Chief Executive, said: “It’s been a difficult and challenging 18 months and this has meant a lot of hard work, dedication and willingness by staff to implement our improvement plan across our services.

“We know that we still have more to do on our journey of improvement, particularly across a number of areas and services that require more focus, more support and more investment, but this CQC report will, I am sure, help further energise and drive our staff to make the further improvements needed so that we can achieve our aim to be an outstanding rated service.”

The new Northern Care Alliance NHS Group brings together five hospitals, 2,000 beds, specialist and acute services, a range of associated community services, and over 17,000 staff across Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.