Hospitals trust told to improve

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust has been rated as "weak" overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the fourth successive year.

The CQC analyses all NHS health trusts in England and rates them as excellent, good, fair or weak on overall quality and financial management.

The trust was given a "fair" rating for financial management.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust was rated as "fair" overall - down from "good" in 2008.

Improvements needed

The CQC's Ian Biggs said: "Yet again it [RCHT] has come out as weak for quality of services and that isn't good enough. They need to be doing more to improve their standards.

"I'm most concerned about the range of standards associated with safety including cleanliness and decontamination of medical devices where they need to make improvements."

We've really scrutinised the quality of the services we provide in the hospital Christine Rashleigh, The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust What to do with the RCHT?

But Christine Rashleigh, interim director of nursing, therapies and allied health professionals at the RCHT, said: "I can assure the public that we have worked really hard and have improved on those ratings.

"Generally across the hospital we've seen improvements. There isn't one area I'd say we really need to hone in on."

RCHT is the only trust to have been rated "weak" every year since the ratings system started four years ago.

However, the report showed that RCHT had reduced the number of hospital acquired infections.

The number of those affected by MRSA during the first half of 2009 had fallen by 80% compared to the same time in 2008, and C. difficile had decreased by 67%.

Survival rates within the RCHT were also rated as being in the top 10% in the country and patients rated hygiene care as excellent.

'Improving access'

Ms Rashleigh said: "Our turnaround and treatment time in our emergency department is excellent and we've got a five year accreditation in our endoscopy units both in Royal Cornwall and West Cornwall hospitals.

"You don't achieve those if your standards are poor."

The CQC's Ian Biggs said the PCT has been downgraded for quality of services after it admitted it wasn't meeting all of the government's standards.

Mr Biggs said: "There are a number of areas where they have acknowledged they haven't fully resolved and they have made it clear that they are addressing those issues right now."

The county's Primary Care Trust said that, despite only being given a reduced rating, it believed it was still making progress and that that work would continue.

PCT Chief Executive Ann James said: "We're looking to improve across a whole range of things."

The report reflects standards recorded between March 2008 and April 2009. It also looked at the other NHS Trusts in Cornwall.

The Cornwall Partnership Trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services, and the South Western Ambulance Service Trust were both rated as "good".

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