We know our hospitals are at the centre of the Bradford community and one of the cornerstones of NHS healthcare in West Yorkshire. We also know the services we provide are of vital importance to you. You should expect the highest standards from us and be able to have confidence in the care and treatment we provide when you come through our doors.
It is for this reason that I wanted to reassure you that our services are safe and the quality of treatment and care you receive is good. Our three most recent CQC service inspections, published within the last 4 months, clearly demonstrate that all three services had improved. Our medical services at both St. Luke’s Hospital and BRI were good. Our Maternity services have continued to improve. Notably the two domains inspected this time, ‘safety’ and ‘well led’, were both rated ‘Good’. Our work to improve our overall rating continues. You can read more about our CQC ratings and access the full reports from our website.
When it comes to our neonatal service, the CQC’s most recent inspection report rated this service as “Outstanding”. This unit, which provides care and treatment to some of our most vulnerable babies with the most complex needs, has a team of clinicians who are dedicated and passionate about always seeking to improve the care they give.
This has been recognised by the CQC and should be a great source of assurance for families and babies that rely on this service. Sadly, in November 2021 during the Covid pandemic, there was an issue when Bradford Royal Infirmary’s Neonatal Unit had an outbreak of antibiotic resistant Klebsiella. I can assure you the issues highlighted in the subsequent investigation report have all been addressed. An additional, more recent, independent review of our handling, reporting and learning from these incidents concluded that these were satisfactory as reported by the West Yorkshire ICB Board, who “were assured by the update provided regarding neonatal services at BTHFT” during their board meeting (section 84, page 11 in the minutes). You can read the full statement we issued about Klebsiella last year on our website.
The Trust performance through winter has been strong and we have been consistently in the top 10% of Trusts for the achievement of the 4hr A&E wait time throughout this challenging winter period.
None of the improvements our hospitals have made over the last five years would have been possible without the commitment and dedication of over 6,700 BTHFT colleagues and as a Trust one of our key objectives is to attract and retain the highest calibre of staff and to make BTHFT a great place to work. The experience, safety and wellbeing of our people is important to us. We are extremely proud and privileged to have attracted one of the most diverse workforces of any hospital in the UK.
Our diversity is our strength. We are committed to ensuring that everyone who works with us is valued, listened to and feels a sense of belonging and that they are afforded equal opportunities to grow and develop. Our staff satisfaction survey results have improved year on year and we are proud to have been selected by NHS England to be one of a small number of National People Promise Exemplar sites.
Our priority continues, as it always has been, to continue our work towards becoming an outstanding provider of healthcare across the entirety of our services.
Dr Ray Smith
Chief Medical Officer