Retford Hospital

Updated 28 March 2024

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching NHS Foundation Trust provides acute services for 420,000 across South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, and the surrounding areas. The trust employs over 6000 staff.

The trust provides a range of outpatient and community services at Retford Hospital. Services provided at Retford include: outpatient department, physiotherapy, speech therapy, chiropody, audiology, child health, community occupational health, community nursing/equipment loans, continence service, dental, genito-urinary medicine, intermediate care and medical imaging.

Updated 28 March 2024

Updated 19 February 2020

We previously inspected outpatients jointly with diagnostic imaging, so we cannot compare our new ratings directly with previous ratings.

We rated this service as good because:

• The service provided mandatory training to all staff. Equipment and the premises were visibly clean. Staff managed clinical waste well. There were enough staff to keep patients safe and provide the right care and treatment.
• Staff kept records of patients’ care and treatment. Records were up to date and easily available to staff providing care. The service administered, recorded and stored medicines safely.
• Staff recognised incidents and reported them appropriately. Managers shared lessons learned locally with the team,
• The service based care and treatment on national guidance and individual specialities managed NICE guidance compliance rates within departments. Medical staff prescribed and administered pain relief for minor procedures.
• Staff worked together as a team to benefit patients and provide good care and were competent for their roles. All staff had completed their appraisal. Staff knew how to support patients who lacked capacity to make their own decisions or were experiencing mental ill health.
• The service provided outpatient clinics between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. People could access food and drink. The service had relevant information promoting healthy lifestyles and support. People could access the service when they needed it. Although some specialties struggled to meet demand, most waiting times from referral to treatment and arrangements to admit, treat and discharge patients were in line with national standards. Staff treated concerns seriously, investigated them and managers shared lessons learned with staff.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs. Staff provided emotional support to patients, families and carers to minimise their distress. Staff supported patients, families and carers to understand their condition.
• Staff felt respected, supported and valued, and focused on the needs of patients.
• Although the ‘did not attend’ rate was higher than the England average at all of the trust’s sites, a new text reminder and respond system had been implemented. Managers and booking centre staff told us the trust had been able to reduce the rate significantly over two full months prior to our inspection.
• Leaders operated effective governance processes. Managers worked with partner organisations. Staff were clear about their roles and the service provided opportunities for career development.
• The service and senior leaders had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and a strategy to turn it into action. Leaders operated effective governance processes. Environmental risks were identified and recorded. Staff had access to information.
• Leaders managed performance effectively. Environmental risks were identified and recorded.
• The service collected data to understand performance, make decisions and improvements. The information systems were integrated and secure.
• Leaders engaged with patients, staff and local organisations to plan and manage services. They collaborated with partner organisations to help improve services for patients.

However,

• There was not always an indication on equipment that it had been cleaned and cleaning checklists were not always completed. Not all utility rooms were kept locked.
• Records were not always clear, and staff did not always adhere to professional record keeping standards. Records were not always stored securely in patient areas when not in use.
• Learning from never events was not shared widely across different outpatients departments at the trust.
• The trust did not display information for patients on how to make a complaint.
• Information provided by the trust prior to our inspection showed no clinics were cancelled. However, they later provided information to show 20% of all outpatient clinics were cancelled.
• Although the trust told us there was a system in place to identify and record patients waiting for long periods within clinics, we did not see this being followed in practice in all outpatient areas during our inspection. There were some long waiting times within clinics and although departments informed patients on arrival how long they would need to wait, this was not always accurate
• Some staff were unaware who senior leaders were. Local leaders did not routinely visit the department.
• Although staff were aware of departmental plans relevant to their own area, not all staff were aware of how they linked in with the overarching trust strategy.
• Risk registers did not include all risks and reviews of actions taken were not documented.
• Senior leadership operated at directorate level and outpatients departments worked separately from each other. It was not clear if leaders had an overview of the outpatients department as a whole