Working with our regulator to improve

The Trust Board of Weston Area Health NHS Trust (WAHT) has agreed steps to respond to concerns highlighted by the regulator NHS Improvement (NHSI).

Chief executive James Rimmer said “Our vision is to work in partnership to provide outstanding healthcare to all of our patients; our staff, who care for patients when they are vulnerable, are central to this. The steps we are taking will support our staff, further improve the quality of care we deliver to our patients, while ensuring that we live within our financial means.”

Since NHSI assessed the Trust as requiring support to address significant concerns in October 2016, the Trust has made a number of improvements including appointing key members of the Trust Board such as the medical director Dr Peter Collins, Director of Nursing Sarah Dodds and Director of Human Resources Alex Nestor; achieved improvements in quality; formulated plans to ensure we work more efficiently; and strengthened its financial planning.

In the next three months, the Trust will set out how it will build on these improvements in plans that support significant areas of the Trust’s work, such as quality improvement, access to services, workforce and financial planning and governance.

“Our staff have worked hard and we are achieving good results in many areas. For example,

• we work vigilantly to prevent pressure ulcers occurring in hospital and our incidence of this is low,
• we have embedded best practice around screening patients for venous thromboembolism,
• more than 95% of our eligible patients have been screened for the last three months, and  
• our performance against the 4 hour Emergency Department standard continues to improve with us achieving the 95% standard for two weeks in May.

However, it is essential that we continue to improve and have clear plans in place about how we will do this. We are working with our regulator NHS Improvement to put these in place and manage them robustly.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• NHS Improvement’s (NHSI) Single Oversight Framework (SOF) sets out how it oversees NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts, using one consistent approach, to determine the type and level of support trusts require.
• NHSI segments trusts into four categories according to the level of support each trust needs. 
• Weston Area Health NHS Trust has been categories in segment three -  Providers receiving mandated support for significant concerns: there is actual or suspected breach of licence, and a Regional Support Group has agreed to seek formal undertakings from the provider or the Provider Regulation Committee has agreed to impose regulatory requirements.