Nuffield Health Plymouth Hospital achieves ‘good’ rating from CQC with surgical expertise and patient care in surgery recognised as outstanding
Nuffield Health Plymouth Hospital, part of the wider Nuffield Health Charity, has achieved a ‘Good’ rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with the Hospital’s surgical services and patient care in surgery highlighted as ‘Outstanding’ in the inspection report.
The CQC ensures health and social care services in England provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care. Nuffield Health Plymouth Hospital is now rated as ‘Good’ by the CQC after it was previously rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ after its last inspection in July 2015. The CQC inspectors highlighted the following about the Plymouth site in their inspection report:
- The service used innovative evidence-based approaches to improve patient care. This included the use of nurse-led research that had contributed towards a reduction in surgical site infections
- High performance was recognised by credible external bodies. For example, the hospital submitted data to the National Joint Registry and had achieved recognition as a quality data provider in the past two years. Quality indicators were above the national average and better than expected for hospital consent rate and hospital data link ability. All other indicators were in the expected range and the service performed above the national average for standardised revision ratio (SRR) knees
- Outcomes for people who used services were positive, consistent and regularly exceeded expectations. The hospital participated in patient reported outcome measures and patients reported consistently positive patient outcomes. For hip replacement, the percentage of patients reporting an improvement in Oxford Hip Score between six to nine months post discharge was 100% in 2019, 2020 and 2021. For knee replacements the percentage of patients reporting an improvement in Oxford Knee Score between six to nine months post discharge was 98% in 2019, 100% in 2020 and 95% in 2021. For cataracts surgery the hospital scored 100% in 2020 and 94% in 2021 for patients reporting an improvement between three to six months post discharge
- Patients had access to a ‘joint school’ programme led by a physiotherapist. The sessions prepared patients for hip and knee surgeries and ensured patients understood what would happen during the surgery and the recovery process. Physiotherapists were collecting data to demonstrate the positive impact on patient clinical outcomes and patient experience. Data showed a reduced length of stay and a reduction in the need for as many post-operative outpatient physio sessions
Patricia Warwick, Hospital Director at Nuffield Health Plymouth Hospital since July 2017 comments: “We are delighted our surgical expertise and impressive patient outcomes have been recognised by the Care Quality Commission.
“Our hospital is a central part of the local healthcare community and our team is committed to delivering fast access and the best possible care and to respond to the individual needs of people wanting to self-pay, those with health insurance and NHS patients within the Southwest Peninsula. I’m proud of everyone in our hard-working hospital team and we are all focused on continuous improvement as we move forward,” she adds.
Ben Davies, Nuffield Health’s Interim Clinical Services Director, says: “I am delighted that Nuffield Health Plymouth Hospital has been rated as ‘Good’ by the CQC with its surgical expertise highlighted as ‘Outstanding’. The hospital team at Plymouth are committed to ensuring that all patients receive high quality care and the new rating from the CQC is reflective of the strength of the commitment that the hospital team provide to the local community.”
Nuffield Health is the only UK-wide independent hospital provider to have all hospitals rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by UK regulators*
