Clean bill of health for the Conquest

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) this week published reports following its unannounced inspection visits last month to the hospital on The Ridge and Eastbourne DGH saying the hospital trust was now fully compliant in all areas of patient care and management of services.

Until recently the CQC had two remaining concerns, namely management of medicines and the trust’s assessing and monitoring the quality of its services.

Two years ago it was a different story when a damning report by the CQC revealed a catalogue of failures by staff at the Conquest Hospital.

Health inspectors highlighted major concerns over patient safety, privacy and staffing levels in their report, which was published in May 2011 following the visit in February that year.

Darren Grayson, trust chief executive, said of this week’s reports: “It is pleasing to see the tremendous improvements we have made recognised by the CQC.

“Two years ago, following the original inspections, I was always very open and honest and said that the improvements required in the quality of care at the trust would take time to deliver and require large scale cultural and service change.

“Although we have achieved our goal and become fully compliant it is not a time to become complacent.

“We are committed to continually improving the quality of care and outcomes for patients and aim to get every aspect of care right for all our patients all of the time.

“These reports demonstrate the significant improvements and progress we have made thanks to the hard work of our staff.”