Saint Michael’s retains ‘Outstanding’ for ‘Caring’ from CQC

Following our most recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Saint Michael’s is pleased to have retained our ‘Outstanding’ rating for ‘Caring’.

The overall ‘Good’ rating, our first since 2015, comes following an inspection of our family of hospice services by the regulatory body back in December.

Some of the highlights from the report include:

• “Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions. They provided emotional support to patients, families, and carers.”
• “Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, supporting them to make decisions about their care.”
• “The services planned care to meet the needs of local people, took account of patients’ individual needs, and made it easy for people to give feedback.”
• “The service engaged well with patients and the community to plan and manage services, and all staff were committed to improving services continually.”

Chief Executive Tony Collins said: “We and our community know that the high quality and compassionate care we provide via our services goes above and beyond to ensure people are cared for in the right place, and at the right time. To have this reinforced by our latest CQC inspection is heartening and sees us continue as local and regional leaders in specialist care for those living with a terminal illness.

“However, to continue this care as we are, and meet our strategic aspirations to support 50% more people by 2027, we need to see urgent action in an uplift for our government funding. We are expected to only receive a 1.2% rise in the government funding we receive from April – against inflation running at 8%. This leaves us with a £500,000 funding shortfall in the next financial year.”

The CQC is the body responsible for inspecting health and social care services in England. Their report looks at the quality of care we provide – both from their visits to our services and ongoing monitoring of data from ourselves, patients and partners. Read our full report at https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-112322887

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