Care Quality Commission upgrades surgery care rating at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth

Derriford hospital  is run by University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and surgery services  were inspected as part of the Care Quality Commission’s ongoing monitoring of services.

Following this inspection, CQC has upgraded the rating for the categories of safe, effective, responsive and well-led from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

Although improvements had been made since the previous inspection there were some areas that still needed attention. 

Inspectors found two breaches of regulations relating to dignity and respect and staffing, and CQC has asked the trust to submit an action plan setting out how they plan to address the issues.

Derriford  remains rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall.

Catherine Campbell, CQC deputy director of operations in the South explained: “When we inspected Derriford Hospital’s surgery services we found staff and leaders had been committed to using the findings from our last inspection to make improvements and this had resulted in positive changes being made across the board.

“Staff now felt listened to and understood people’s needs, views and wishes. People said they knew how to raise issues and were confident their feedback was acted on. Many spoke about how comfortable staff made them, and how they had been supported to make decisions about their care and give informed consent.

“The service had developed a culture of continuous improvement and we found leaders were visible, knowledgeable, and helped staff to develop in their roles. 

“They had good systems in place to act on safety risks, including when safeguarding concerns were raised, and made sure that lessons were learned and shared with staff when things went wrong.

“Although the service had made improvements, we were concerned with how many staff had completed all the training required for their roles and found privacy issues with the orthopaedic operating theatres. The doors in the theatres enabled members of the public or other staff to see people who were being taken in for surgery and the trust addressed this following our feedback.

“The trust should be pleased with the progress they have made in surgery services and we’ll continue to monitor them while further improvements take place. We will return to reinspect in future.”

Inspectors found that people could access the service and were supported with interpreters. 

Staff spoke positively about their leaders and said their managers understood the challenges of their roles, supporting them to work effectively and provide the best possible care to people.

Inspectors said they believed that staff had the right skills and experience to meet people’s needs and worked with the local community to deliver joined-up care.

Staff understood their duty of candour and were open and honest with people when things went wrong.

However, the CQC team found that pharmacy support for the service varied compared to other areas of the hospital and staff were not always clear on the processes for managing some medicines. 

Staff told the inspectors that pharmacy delays meant people had not been discharged as quickly as they could be. The trust said it was working to reduce such delays.

The report in full is published on CQC’s website.