Archived: Halstead Community Hospital Ward

Updated 17 April 2014

Halstead community hospital ward is a purpose built 20-bed ward located within Halstead Hospital. A range of NHS services are delivered from Halstead Hospital by Central Essex Community Services C.I.C. and Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust.

Services delivered here include:

• Community cardiac services
• Community hospital ward
• Health visiting
• Outpatient physiotherapy clinics
• Parkinson’s disease clinics
• Podiatry
• School nursing
• Unscheduled therapy – domiciliary service

Halstead community hospital ward provides inpatient care to up to twenty people in the community hospital. People cared for within this inpatient facility require rehabilitation and all are over the age of 18. Patients can be referred by their GP’s, via the Rapid Assessment Unit (RAU) at Braintree Community Hospital or direct from two local acute Hospitals. 

Updated 17 April 2014

Halstead community hospital ward is a purpose built 20-bed ward located within Halstead Hospital. People cared for require rehabilitation, for example following a fall or surgery, and all are over the age of 18.  Halstead Community Hospital ward is managed by Central Essex Community Services C.I.C (Community Interest Company).

We chose to inspect Halstead Community Hospital Ward as part of the first pilot phase of the new inspection process we are introducing for community health services. Halstead Community Hospital Ward was last inspected in 2013; at that point it was not meeting national standards in respect of assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.

In general, we found that Halstead Community Hospital ward provided safe care. People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm and mechanisms were in place to monitor, report and learn from safety incidents such as falls and pressure ulcers.

We found examples of good leadership, and most staff felt very well supported by their managers. Staff said that they had good training and development opportunities; although clinical supervision arrangements were not as robust.  Staff spoke with passion about their work and demonstrated commitment to provide the best care they could.

Patients and their families were appropriately involved in and central to making decisions about their care and the support needed. The majority of patients and their relatives were positive about the care and treatment they had received.

Results of internal customer surveys conducted in 2012/13 of all services provided by Central Essex Community Services were generally favourable although it is not possible to benchmark the results against other similar organisations. The vast majority of people spoke positively about their care, and we saw some good examples of staff delivering compassionate care to patients and their families.

Updated 17 April 2014

People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm as staff were confident of adult protection triggers to report serious incidents or report concerns if they suspected poor practice. Mechanisms were in place to monitor, report and learn from safety incidents such as falls and pressure ulcers. However, further work is needed to ensure consistency regarding incident classification and reporting.

We found that national guidance was being implemented and monitoring systems to measure performance were in place. There was good collaborative working within the multi-disciplinary team (MTD) and staff available to meet the needs of patients was sufficient in terms of numbers and skill mix.

We saw good examples of care being provided with compassion and of effective interactions between staff and patients. Staff spoke with passion about their work and were proud of what they did.

The service is responsive to the needs of the local population and systems are in place to ensure learning from information gathered from the experiences, both positive and negative, of people who used the service. People from all communities could access services and effective multidisciplinary team working, including liaison between ward staff and community based teams, ensured people were provided with care that met their needs, at the right time and without delay.

The ward was well led. The senior management team were visible and the culture was seen as open and transparent. Governance arrangements were in place to deliver high quality care. Staff were aware of the vision and way forward for the organisation and said that they generally felt well supported and that they could raise any concerns. Many staff told us that it was a good place to work.