By Isle of Wight Observer
In April 2017 the Isle of Wight NHS Trust was rated as ‘Inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an inspection of some of our services in November 2016.
As a result of the CQCs concerns, NHS Improvement placed the Trust in ‘Special Measures’. Since then all of our staff have been striving to improve the care and services we provide. In January and February this year the CQC revisited the Trust to conduct its first full inspection of all of our services since we were placed in ‘Special Measures’.
Maggie Oldham, chief executive of Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said: “We accept the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s report, which include a number of recommendations that will help us as we continue the work we have started in implementing a plan for major improvement across the Trust.
“Although the Trust remains rated as ‘inadequate’ overall, the CQC identified a number of areas of progress, including several examples of outstanding practice. It was pleasing to see the CQC find ‘clear signs of recovery and improvement’ since its last inspection and that there is ‘growing momentum’ here. Furthermore, it acknowledged the caring and compassionate staff we have here – something that has been evident to me in the relatively short time I have been here.
“However, the fact remains that we have not improved our overall rating from ‘inadequate’ and we are under no illusions that we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us to turn things around.
“We have always said that our improvement journey would not be an easy or a short one. As the CQC rightly concluded, we are in the early stages of our improvement journey and there is now potential for significant improvement at the Trust. We must now build on these small but significant steps of progress in transforming care on the island.
“It will take a lot of hard work from everyone who works at the Trust, as well as from our health and social care partners, but we now have the foundations in place and I’m absolutely confident that we can and will deliver the services that our patients expect and deserve.”
The CQC report is published on Wednesday 6th June and will be available on the CQC website.
