Health Check rating for Cambridge University Hospitals

The Care Quality Commission has rated Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as ‘good’ for both quality of services and use of resources in the annual NHS Health Check.

 

Dr Gareth Goodier, Chief Executive of Cambridge University Hospitals, said:

 

“’Good’ is good, but naturally I believe our services and staff are excellent. This result does not reflect the expertise and standard of care delivered at Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie.

 

“We missed out on an ‘excellent’ rating by a tiny margin. This was down to two issues: the format of some appointment records did not match the template introduced by the CQC, and a small number of patients using a region-wide service had to wait longer when it was under heavy pressure. Whilst I realise that this was not ideal for these patients, it did not justify marking us down.

 

“This score does not reflect what we have achieved in the last year. Sometimes things go wrong, but our track record, our plans for the future, and the feedback we get from patients tell us that these are still excellent hospitals.”

 

The two areas responsible for the reduced rating were as follows:

• The Rosie’s computer system recorded some appointment details in a format different to that expected by the Care Quality Commission, and so the hospital missed a ‘data validity’ threshold by a margin of 0.001. The actual results were well within the required range. If just four more babies had been born in the year then the Rosie’s data would have been classed as acceptable, and the target would have been achieved. Other hospitals with lower data quality but different recording methods will have passed in this area.

• The highly specialist Clinical Genetics service – which is provided at Addenbrooke’s for the entire Eastern Region – came under pressure earlier in the year. A small number of patients (279 out of a total of around 500,000 outpatient appointments) had to wait more than 13 weeks to be seen. This problem has been resolved and all patients are now being seen within the target time.

This year the Trust is achieving all infection control targets. In 2007/08 there were up to 40 cases of C. difficile a month; so far in October there has been just a single case acquired in the hospital. The Health Service Journal picked the Trust as the best acute hospital in the NHS; maternity services are rated as excellent, and the Emergency Department is top in the region for trauma. Overall, Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie are among the country’s safest hospitals, and surveys show that we meet or exceed 94% of patients’ expectations.

 

Regionally, 10 out of 18 acute hospital trusts scored less well for quality of services this year than last year. None of the four previously classed as excellent/excellent retained the rating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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