Benenden Hospital is celebrating after being awarded an “Outstanding” rating by the Care Quality Commission.
Hospital Director Jane Abbott said: “This is an amazing result and I am thrilled.
“Our patients are at the heart of everything we do and our staff go that extra mile for patients whenever they can. It’s wonderful to have this recognised.
“I would like to thank all members of staff for the level of care and commitment they demonstrate on a daily basis.”
During their inspection the CQC spoke with patients who described their care and staff as “lovely”, “amazing”, “supportive” and “friendly”. One patient said “nothing is too much trouble”, another said they “couldn’t have asked for better care” and another told inspectors “you get treated as someone special”.
The CQC found areas of “Outstanding” practice at Benenden including:
- Infection prevention and control leadership and staff commitment to the issue
- The Hospital’s work in enhanced recovery pathways to reduce the length of hospital stay for orthopaedic patients
- The Hospital’s innovations in practice in anaesthetics
- The Hospital’s commitment to staff wellbeing and their Investors in People Silver Award
CQC inspectors judge hospital and healthcare facilities on five requirements - that they are caring, safe, effective, well led and responsive.
The CQC report said: “The patients and relatives we spoke with were pleased with the care they received. Staff were focussed on providing the best service for all patients and were proud to work at the Hospital.
“The Hospital allocated the time necessary for nursing staff to build positive relationships with patients and their families. This enabled the nurses to provide reassurance, information and support to patients and families. Staff provided sensitive, caring and individualised personal care to patients.
“There was clear and highly visible leadership provided by senior management and within the departments. There was a strong culture of openness and transparency.”
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. It rates organisations as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.
Benenden Hospital, which is also celebrating its 110th year this year, is operated by The Benenden Hospital Trust. It is currently undergoing a multi-million pound redevelopment.
The Hospital looks after members of Benenden, private and self-pay patients and NHS patients through the E-referral scheme.
Elaine Biddle, CQC Hospital Inspection Manager, South East, said, “It is wonderful to see that Benenden Hospital was consistently ensuring staff were motivated in going the extra mile with people and receiving care which exceeded their expectations. The relationships between people who used the service and staff was strong, caring and supportive and seen as a partnership and for that we gave the service an outstanding rating.
“Inspectors found the management of the services was outstanding and assured the delivery of high-quality person-centred care. The clinical managers were seen to be committed to the patients in their care, their staff and the service This, as well as a very visible and supportive leadership ensured a motivated and inspired work-force. Frontline staff were seen to be passionate about providing a high quality service for patients with a continual drive to improve the delivery of care.
“The team should all be extremely proud of the work they do. I congratulate the staff at Benenden Hospital for achieving our highest rating.”
See the full report on the Care Quality Commission website at: http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-118024670
Published on 15 May 2017