North East trust retains outstanding rating

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust’s latest CQC report builds on the outstanding rating the trust received in 2016, with the trust now counting six key service areas – urgent and emergency services, surgery, critical care, maternity, end of life care and services for children and young people – rated outstanding. This is two more than the last inspection.

The trust also retained its outstanding rating for the well-led domain.

In 2018 Dame Jackie Daniel took the top job at the trust after long serving chief executive Sir Leonard Fenwick was sacked for gross misconduct in 2017, amid accusations of bullying.

In the CQC report, which followed an inspection in January 2019, inspectors said: “Leaders had an inspiring shared purpose, which, encouraged compassionate, inclusive and supportive relationships among staff so that they felt respected, valued and supported. All staff we spoke with told us and demonstrated the trust core value of ‘putting patients at the heart of everything we do’.”

Chief executive Dame Jackie Daniel praised staff at the trust for keeping the rating: “We are all incredibly proud to receive such positive recognition from the CQC. It really is an amazing achievement and down to each and every member of staff who work tirelessly, day in and day out, for our patients.

“While an outstanding rating shows the hard work taking place, we’ve also made improvements in some key service areas since our last inspection including the emergency department and end of life care, which reflects our culture of continuous improvement.”