Over the last two years we have inspected every Trust registered hospital and community base. We have completed annual inspections of the James Cook University Hospital and The Friarage as well as completing themed inspections at the hospitals, which looked at both Accident and Emergency departments as well has the Trust’s termination of pregnancy services. We found that the Trust encouraged us to identify any ways they could improve.

Teams of CQC staff have inspected all the locations and these teams included specialist advisors and experts by experience. Throughout the two years we have held regular meetings with Trust representatives and discussed work the Trust is completing to maintain and improve their service. We have found that over the two years the Trust has remained compliant with all the regulations.

Our central analytic team have constantly reviewed the data the Trust has submitted to the various bodies overseeing their work and used this to assess the performance of the Trust. The central team have also compared this information on performance against other Trusts both in the North East, across the country and against Trusts with similar size populations and services. The last published risk rating for the Trust placed them in band 6, which is the lowest risk rating.

We found that the Trust’s quality assurance system was effective. It covered all aspects of the service and did not lose sight of the needs of the patients using the community services.

We went the hospital with a specialist advisor who specialised in overseeing governance arrangements. We looked at all the Trust operated areas of the hospital and we spoke with patients and, staff on the ward, in the urgent care centre and in the outpatient department. Our focus during this inspection was to look at whether the hospital met the care and welfare needs of patients and the infection control arrangements.

We spoke with 12 patients and two relatives . Some of the patients were not able to discuss their experiences so we observed how these people’s needs were met.

Patients and relatives told us that they thought the care they received was excellent. People said, “The staff are marvellous”, “I would shout it from the rooftops that this is the best hospital I have even been in” and “This is truly a wonderful place, I can’t praise it enough.”.

We observed that staff were extremely empathetic, considerate and were sensitive to patient’s needs. We saw that the addition of a therapeutic care worker on the ward had provided patients with a stimulating environment and staff all assisted patients who experienced confusion cope with the ward environment.

We found that staff had access to all the equipment they needed and infection control measures were followed.