King's Mill Hospital given 'outstanding' rating by watchdog

An inspector said staff at King's Mill Hospital were clear about their roles, understood the trust's vision, and felt respected, supported and valued

A previously struggling hospital has been given an "outstanding" rating from the health watchdog.

King's Mill Hospital, in Nottinghamshire, has improved from "good" in 2018, "requires improvement" in 2016 and "inadequate" in 2015.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as "good" overall.

Inspectors said staff "should be proud of the care they are providing to people using their services".

Newark Hospital, which is also part of the trust, improved from "requires improvement" to "good".

The report was published following an inspection from January to February.

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King's Mill Hospital, in Sutton in Ashfield, was rated as "outstanding" in the caring, well-led and overall categories. In the safe, effective and responsive categories it was rated as "good".

Inspectors said some reasons for the overall "outstanding" result included the number of staff, the good care and how well leaders ran the hospital.

The report highlighted a few areas of improvement, including giving staff time to complete mandatory training and clearly displaying patient information in languages other than English.

Prof Ted Baker, CQC's chief inspector of hospitals, said: "Inspectors were particularly impressed by how caring staff were across services which is why we rated this area as outstanding.

"Improvements were also made with regards to safety."

King's Mill Hospital

• In 2013, Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust was told to improve its services at King's Mill Hospital

• A baby was accidentally given a morphine overdose and her parents said it's a "miracle" she survived in 2014

• In 2015, it was rated as "inadequate"

• It was taken out of special measures in 2016

• In 2018, the trust apologised to the parents of a stillborn baby who died at the hospital after mistakes in her care were highlighted

Richard Mitchell, chief executive of the trust, said the "outstanding" rating was "a boost to colleagues"

Richard Mitchell, chief executive of the trust, said they were "proud" of the rating and hoped it gave "a boost to colleagues who have been working incredibly hard in unprecedented circumstances this year".

He added that critical care has been "one of the areas which has had to increase their capacity and change the way of working" due to the coronavirus.

"The fact they've [critical care service] been identified as outstanding is really important recognition for the way they care for patients pre-Covid and certainly over the last eight weeks," he said.

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