Altrincham General Hospital

Updated 19 March 2019

Altrincham Hospital is a modern purpose-built building that opened in April 2015. It provides a range of outpatient services. There is also a 20-bedded renal dialysis satellite unit located on the second floor of the hospital.

We inspected outpatient services from 9 to 11 October 2018.

Updated 19 March 2019

• We rated outpatient services as good for being safe, caring, responsive and well led. The effective domain is not rated for outpatient services.
• A summary of outpatient services and the ratings is provided in the Outpatient section below.

Updated 19 March 2019

We had not previously inspected this service. We rated this service as good because:

• We rated safe, caring, responsive and well-led as good. The effective domain is not rated for outpatient services.
• The service provided mandatory training in key skills to staff.
• Services had suitable premises and equipment. They were kept clean to minimise the risk of infection.
• There were enough staff, with the right qualifications, skills and training so that patients were seen and assessed in a timely way and within the prescribed targets. However, managers had recognised a need to review the staffing establishment to meet additional and regular clinic demands and reduce dependency on bank and agency staff.
• The service provided care and treatment based on national guidance. There were processes in place to ensure that guidance was promptly reviewed, disseminated and embedded.
• The effectiveness of care and treatment was monitored regularly and reported to the clinical effectiveness committee. Services were involved in the annual clinical audit programme. Audit results and patient outcome monitoring were used to drive improvements.
• Staff received role-specific training. They were encouraged to take up external training courses that were relevant to their roles.
• Staff worked collaboratively with GPs and other stakeholders to deliver effective care and treatment and support people to live healthier lives and manage their own conditions.
• Staff cared for patients with compassions and respected their privacy and dignity. They offered adequate emotional support and involved patients and their carers in decisions about their care and treatment.
• Complaints and concerns were treated seriously and lessons were learned and shared with staff.
• The service had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and workable plans to turn it into action. The views of staff and patients were used to drive improvements.
• Staff were valued and supported by managers and a positive culture and the wellbeing of staff was promoted.

However:

• There were some mandatory training modules where completion rates were not high, for example, resuscitation training where there was a shortage of places on courses. Managers had made sure that all eligible staff were booked onto a course by the end of 2018.
• There were low completion rates in safeguarding children level three for outpatient nursing staff and for safeguarding adults level two for allied health professionals.
• There could be long waits for patients in the phlebotomy service where appointments were not required.