Wirral community NHS foundation trust 'must improve' says national healthcare watchdog

The Care Quality Commission's latest inspection report says some areas of the trust's work are "outstanding" and "good."

But the independent regulator has given an overall finding the organisation "requires improvement."

Trust chief executive Karen Howell, who writes a fortnightly health column for the Globe, said it was "disappointing" they had been given the overall rating.

She said the report reflects the position at the end of March 2018 and the trust is "confident" that most of the issues raised have now been addressed.

The remaining issues "have action plans in place."

Ms Howell said she found there were many positive aspects to the inspection: "Our children and young people’s division was particularly highlighted for outstanding practice in relation to the dietetics team.

"Our children’s weight reduction service, the FIT club, community end of life care and community dental services were also rated good.

“Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we are proud that the kindness, respect and compassion of our teams were recognised by inspectors."

The CQC report said: “When inspectors raised concerns they were immediately addressed and staff were seen to be kind, caring and passionate about providing high quality care.”

The inspection team also found staff took account of patients’ individual needs and involved them in decision making about their care.

The overall rating for the service in 2014 was found to be "good."

The trust provides a wide-range range of healthcare including community nursing, physiotherapy, GP out of hours, walk-in centres and the borough's blood testing service.

It employs more than 1,500 members of staff, 90% of whom are in "patient-facing" roles.

A further inspection will be carried out within the next 12 months.

An earlier version of this article said the trust's oveall rating had not changed since an inspection in 2016. This was incorrect. We apologise for this error.