Bradford Royal Infirmary’s Neonatal Unit – which provides specialist care to newborn babies who need additional support – has achieved an ‘Outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The CQC found the service was ‘performing exceptionally well’, was ‘exceptionally caring’ and families felt valued and part of the team caring for their baby.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Executive, Professor Mel Pickup, said the outstanding rating was testament to the hard work and dedication of all the staff who worked on the Neonatal Unit.
“The Neonatal Unit provides a unique and specialist service to babies, mothers and families at what is often an extremely worrying and emotional time. I’m very proud that the CQC found the team to be committed to treating patients and those close to them with compassion and kindness.
“I would like to thank every colleague on the unit for helping us continue to develop a culture of quality that is embedded in our work every day and reflects the Trust’s aim of delivering outstanding care for patients.
The service includes a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), one of only four NICUs in the Yorkshire and Humber region which cares for some of the sickest and most premature babies.
The CQC also inspected the Trust’s Maternity Services and Medical Care, including older people’s care, at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI).
While the CQC’s overall ‘requires improvement’ rating for Maternity could not change since the last inspection, as the latest inspection only looked at two areas of the service, there were improvements to the well-led and safe domains – resulting in ‘good’ ratings.
Medical care at BRI maintained its ‘good’ rating. Inspectors found medical care was safe and well-led and regularly receives positive feedback from patients.
Professor Pickup added: “The Maternity services improvements are a credit to colleagues working in this area. These, together with the outstanding rating for our Neonatal services are a clear indication of our trajectory of improvement.
“I’m pleased that the CQC has recognised our medical care as ‘good’ and well-led with patients receiving compassionate care and treatment from our dedicated and committed colleagues. These are strong foundations for further improvement to deliver even better quality care.
“While our outstanding Neonatal rating and improvements in other services are great news for patients, colleagues and communities, this is not about standing still. There will always be areas we need to focus on to improve service users and carers’ experience of our services and we will work tirelessly to do this.”