The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a report that explores how eight NHS Trusts have been able to make significant improvements in the quality of care and improve their CQC rating.
‘Driving improvement: case studies from eight NHS trusts,’ reveals the journey of improvement travelled by eight Trusts from the perspective of staff, patients and organisations that represent them, and highlights how engaging and empowering staff has been critical in driving up quality.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said: “Since introducing our comprehensive inspection programme in 2014, I have been encouraged by the number of NHS Trusts that have made significant improvements in quality. We know from our inspections that strong leadership and a positive open culture are important drivers of change.
“This report set out to build on that knowledge by exploring how leadership can drive improvement and identify what action has been taken to successfully deliver transformational change.
"Each Trust had its own approach to change, but there were themes common to all and numerous examples of quality initiatives, collaborative working, and programmes of engagement that have helped to drive forward improvement.
“Real change does not happen overnight – the improvements made by each Trust are a testament to the time, effort and determination of staff and local partners. I hope their stories will encourage and inspire others in their own improvement journey.”
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, said: “Our mission is to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world. A crucial part of this is the CQC inspection regime which has proved that when challenges are highlighted transparently, the NHS can make dramatic improvements in the quality of care it gives to patients.
“The NHS couldn’t do this without strong, visible leaders across the country who work with their excellent staff to improve care for patients.
“I want to congratulate all the trusts on a remarkable turnaround, and I hope others will be inspired to put these important lessons into practice at their own hospitals.”
The report – based on interviews with staff, patients and local patient group representatives – shows that one of the first steps to improvement for Trusts was to review the culture of the organisation and look to address any disconnect between clinicians and managers, between medical and nursing teams or between different hospitals in the same Trust. The priority for leaders was to bring all the elements of the Trust together by engaging with staff and allowing open and honest conversations about what needed to happen to improve.
Trusts placed emphasis on the visibility of leaders: chief executives and senior staff spent time on the ‘shop floor’, meeting staff and setting up regular channels of communication. They worked with staff to produce a set of shared values that would underpin positive cultural change and understood that staff needed to have ownership of those values if they were to be meaningful. For some this involved recognising the need to tackle equality and diversity issues relating to staff and patients and in the wider community.
