Genomes Pilot Study. The list of extraordinary and groundbreaking new research and development in child health conducted at GOSH far too long to comment on individually but it is clearly something to be immensely proud of and to celebrate! The CQC rating of ‘Good’ was very well deserved, the outstanding rating for caring and end of life care is a wonderful achievement and down to a set of people who do extraordinary things - every day. Clearly there is work still to be done in some areas, and the difficulties around RTT caused lower ratings that GOSH otherwise would have expected. But this is being dealt with and overall I am sure GOSH is very proud and deserving of its rating. GOSH is aware of, and proactive around, the issues in surgery and outpatients that need improvement. I am confident these will be tackled urgently. Data quality is a risk that the Trust is fully aware of and is working hard to improve. This is key to the delivery of a safe and effective service.
Nevertheless, overall I found this report interesting and enlightening. It has been carefully prepared and shows significant and heartening improvement in many areas. There are many achievements to celebrate and these are a testament to the extraordinarily hard, caring and dedicated work of thousands of people at GOSH who daily work together to make a positive difference to the sickest of children.
Issues with the Gastroenterology Service continue. I am pleased and reassured to hear that these complex issues are being monitored at Board level. It is an area where the Members’ Council have expressed concern on several occasions in the past. I am concerned by the minimal degree of reference to GOSH’s ‘Our Always Values’ given in this report. These values were developed from the views of thousands of patients, parents and staff; they specify that GOSH aspires to be Always Welcoming, Always Helpful, Always Expert and Always One Team. I could find only one mention of these Values at any point through the document. It states that Our Always Values ‘has been a visible commitment to our patients, families and staff’ - while this is correct in that there are visible representations in the form of several posters and banners around the hospital and I know it is part of the recruitment policy, this minimal reference reflects my observation of many different GOSH departments and projects which either omit or keep to a minimum the utilisation of Our Always Values as a way of measuring and/or improving patient and family experience. The wholehearted adoption of Our Always Values by putting these values at the core of everything that GOSH offers and undertakes will inevitably lead to an improvement in all services, including clinical, and therefore will dramatically improve outcomes as well as patient and family experience. I trust this will improved in the 2016-17 Quality Report - because there will have been a significantly greater take up and awareness of the benefits of embracing ‘Our Always Values’ at the core of everything that GOSH does.
Quality Report 2015 /16
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