Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust rated as Good by Care Quality Commission

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), marking a significant step forward in the organisation’s journey to improve patient care, staff experience and the environment in which care is delivered.

Although the Trust’s overall rating has gone up, our maternity services remain at ‘Requires Improvement’ and the team continues to work extremely hard on their improvement programme, providing quality, family-led care.

Inspectors visited services across the Trust, including the Medicine division, Surgery and Planned Care division, and Family and Specialist Services division over the last couple of years as part of a number of inspections. During their visits, they spoke with staff and patients to gain first-hand insight into the care being delivered every day. Our upgraded rating is the result of all of these visits.

Inspectors reported that they felt very welcome, highlighting that staff were friendly and approachable. They also fed back that services had a good learning culture and patients’ communication, personal and health needs were met, with patients and their families supported to make decisions about their care.

This achievement reflects the dedication and hard work of staff across the Trust, alongside the ongoing support of patients and partners. It comes at a time of significant demand across the NHS, with high numbers of patients requiring care, long wait times and a challenging financial climate.

Cara Charles-Barks, Chief Executive of BSW Hospitals Group, said: “We are incredibly proud to be rated ‘Good’ by the CQC following a series of inspections of different services. This recognition reflects the unwavering commitment, professionalism and compassion shown by our staff every single day.

“Over recent years, teams have worked hard to strengthen our services and improve the experience of our patients and colleagues. To see these efforts acknowledged is a fantastic achievement, particularly at a time when the NHS continues to face significant challenges.

“We’ve made exceptional strides in innovative patient-centred care, including reducing falls and pressure harm in hospital introducing additional clinics and utilising digital tools to reduce waiting lists and deliver care to people in the right place, first time.

“In maternity, while we have already made significant steps to address the areas highlighted by the CQC, we will continue to work to improve in this area and will now focus on reviewing all feedback shared to us by families so we can learn more quickly when things don’t always go to plan, making improvements to the environment so women are able to access staff at all times and continuing to provide strong and visible leadership so staff feel well supported.

“We remain ambitious and focused on continuing our journey of improvement to deliver the very best care for our local communities.”

Our maternity team recently achieved the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Gold Award, opened a new Transitional Care Unit which provides specialised care for babies born between 35 and 36 weeks gestation and have introduced neonatal oral antibiotics at home, giving families the chance to leave hospital sooner with their baby.

Inspectors recognised the teamwork shown by the entire perinatal team, acknowledging the positive working culture, strong leadership and competent skills and training across all maternity services. 

Across the Trust, where inspectors identified areas for improvement, they said teams acted quickly to address these and were able to clearly demonstrate a strong culture of continuous improvement across the organisation.