Contrasting findings as health watchdog publishes reports on three west London hospitals

An NHS trust has reacted after service-level inspection reports on three of its hospitals were published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The health watchdogs looked at medical care and other services offered to patients at Charing Cross, St Mary’s and Hammersmith hospitals.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the three hospitals, said the reports highlight outstanding aspects of care, but acknowledges the need for immediate improvements.

Inspections took place in March 2017, and were published in October.

CQC reports

Services were rated overall by the CQC as follows:

Charing Cross Hospital (medical care) – good, up from requires improvement in 2014
Hammersmith Hospital (medical care) – requires improvement, no change from 2014
St Mary’s Hospital (medical care) – requires improvement, no change from 2014
St Mary’s Hospital (maternity services) – requires improvement, down from good in 2014

Charing Cross, in Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, was rated outstanding for being effective and caring, good for being responsive and well-led, and requires improvement for being safe.

At Hammersmith Hospital, in Du Cane Road, Shepherd’s Bush, inspectors found the overall quality of the medicine and elderly care services had stayed the same, but there were some positive changes.

Being safe and responsive was rated as requires improvement, while being effective, caring, and well-led was rated as good.

At St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, the quality of the maternity service dropped from good to requires improvement.

It also requires improvement in being safe, responsive and well-led, but was rated good for being effective and caring.

The overall quality of the medicine and elderly care services had stayed the same as at the previous 2014 inspection, and although there had been some positive changes, the service continued to be rated as requires improvement overall.

Being safe and responsive was rated as requires improvement, while effective, caring, and well-led was rated good.

St Mary's Hospital (Image: Google Street View)

Ian Dalton CBE, the trust’s chief executive, said: “While there are some very clear priorities for improvement, there is also much that is positive to build on.

"The CQC acknowledged improvements in medicine across all of our sites since the last inspection, sufficiently so at Charing Cross to increase our rating there to good.

“Clearly, it is disappointing for maternity services at St Mary’s to be rated as requires improvement though it is clear what we need to do to get back to good and, ultimately, to outstanding.”

He said the inspection findings “reflect a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment from our staff” and that “teams are already focusing on pulling together a robust action plan to address the findings of the CQC as quickly as possible”.

Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter reacted: “I am happy to see that the medical care being provided at Charing Cross Hospital continues to improve. This is a testament to the hard work of the staff working there.

“However, I am disappointed to see that the quality of the maternity services at St Mary’s has declined.”