South Warwickshire hospitals stuck with ‘requires improvement’ rating

[dutchman]

An appeal by South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT) against its ‘requires improvement’ rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has failed



The trust, which runs hospitals in Stratford, Shipston, Warwick and Leamington, said this week that the CQC had accepted that there were some procedural weaknesses in its inspection from last March, and that there was evidence of some unduly harsh ratings judgements.

The latter resulted in changes to two of the trust’s ratings, but the CQC has declined to change its overall rating.

A spokesman for the hospitals’ trust said: “Following our inspection in March 2016, the CQC announced their findings in August 2016.

“Despite all of this good practice the overall rating for the Trust was ‘requires improvement’.

“The trust appealed this rating and in March 2017 the CQC responded to the trust’s appeal and accepted that there were some procedural weaknesses in their inspection and that there was evidence of some unduly harsh ratings judgements.

“The trust is still not satisfied with this outcome and have requested a re-inspection as soon as possible.”

In November last year SWFT announced a strategic alliance with Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) in Herefordshire.