Great Western Hospital rated as ‘Good’ by Care Quality Commission

The Division of Medicine, which provides unplanned medical care, at the Great Western Hospital has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission.

This important marker of safe and high-quality care is a fantastic achievement for hospital staff who have maintained their Good rating through an incredibly busy time for the NHS.

Staff have been praised for treating patients, relatives and visitors with compassion and kindness, while patients described care as excellent.

Inspectors reported that staff manage safety well and understand how to protect patients from abuse. They also highlighted that staff effectively assess risks to patients and act on them, while safety incidents are managed well and lessons learnt from them.

Patient feedback was also positive, with patients reporting excellent care, despite staffing challenges, and saying they feel supported by staff who take the time to explain treatment and decisions.

The Trust is always looking to make improvements and recently reorganised its medical bed locations across the hospital to ensure patients are treated in the most appropriate areas, improving the overall efficiency of care.

A Patient Communication Toolkit is also being developed providing staff with more resources to support patients with different communication needs.

Chief Nurse, Luisa Goddard, said: “We are delighted to maintain our ‘Good’ rating for unscheduled medical care at the Great Western Hospital which is testament to the hard work of our amazing teams.

“Staff were praised for treating patients, relatives and visitors with compassion and kindness, while patients described care as excellent.

“Of course there are areas want to improve, and we are continually working to maintain standards around infection control, privacy and dignity and patient records.

“We always welcome feedback from the Care Quality Commission and use this as a measure of the quality of care we provide.”

The inspection took place in May 2024, with the inspection team looking at medical care which cannot be planned in advance, visiting wards and speaking to patients of all ages, as well as relatives and staff.