Archived: Frenchay Hospital

Updated 11 February 2015

North Bristol NHS Trust is an acute trust located in Bristol that provides hospital and community services to a population of about 900,000 people in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. It also provides addition specialist services such as neurosciences, renal, trauma and plastics/burns to people from across the South West and in some instances nationally or internationally. The trust has five main locations that are registered with the Care Quality Commission. It provides healthcare from Southmead Hospital, Cossham Hospital, Frenchay Hospital site , the  Riverside Unit and Eastgate House. The main hospital at Frenchay closed in May 2014 when the new hospital at Southmead opened, but the Head Injury Therapy Unit still provides outpatient services at the Frenchay site. The trust also provides community healthcare for children and young people across Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

The trust is not a foundation trust.

The city of Bristol is ranked 79 out of 326 local authorities in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. South Gloucestershire is less deprived with a rank score of 272 out of 326. Life expectancy for both men and women in Bristol is slightly worse than the England average but is better than the average for men and women in South Gloucestershire. According to the last census, 16% of Bristol’s population and five per cent of the population of South Gloucestershire were from black and ethnic minority groups. 

The Head Injury Therapy Unit is a specialist outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation service for people who have had a brain injury. It has 13 staff who provide a range of therapies for 63 patients.

We inspected this site as part of the North Bristol NHS Trust inspection. The trust was selected because it was an example of a medium risk trust according to our ‘Intelligent Monitoring’ model. This model looks at a wide range of data, including patient and staff surveys, hospital performance information and the views of the public and local partner organisations. 

Updated 11 February 2015

North Bristol NHS Trust is an acute trust located in Bristol that provides hospital and community services to a population of about 900,000 people in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. It also provides specialist services such as neurosciences, renal, trauma and plastics/burns to people from across the South West and beyond.

The trust has five main locations that are registered with the Care Quality Commission. It provides healthcare from Southmead Hospital, Cossham Hospital, the Frenchay Hospital site, the Riverside Unit and Eastgate House. The main hospital at Frenchay closed in May 2014 when the new hospital at Southmead opened, but the Head Injury Therapy Unit still provides outpatient services at the Frenchay site. The trust also provides community healthcare for children and young people across Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

The Head Injury Therapy Unit is a specialist outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation service for people who have had a brain injury. It is the only service remaining at the Frenchay Hospital site and has 13 staff who provide a range of therapies for 63 patients.

We inspected the Head Injury Therapy Unit as part of the North Bristol NHS Trust inspection. The trust was selected because it was an example of a medium risk trust according to our ‘Intelligent Monitoring’ model. This model looks at a wide range of data, including patient and staff surveys, hospital performance information and the views of the public and local partner organisations. Overall, we rated the Head Injury Therapy Unit as good. We found safety required improvement. Patients were treated by caring staff who were responsive to the needs of patients and the unit was well led. Our key findings were as follows:

• The unit was fully staffed with a team of specialised staff who adopted a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. Their approach to care was adapted to suit the individual needs of the patient.
• There were shortfalls in the management of safety in the department. There were issues with infection control, equipment maintenance and understanding the importance of reporting and learning from incidents.
• Staff were aware of the incident reporting tool but were unsure what would be a reportable incident.
• Staff felt well supported by their individual discipline-specific managers and the Head Injury Therapy Unit manager.
• Referral to treatment times were within 10 weeks below the 18 week target.
• Signposts were not clear on the hospital site which made the unit difficult to find. Patients were not offered transport unless they lived a certain distance away.
• The unit required refurbishment, although we were told they were moving soon. Some staff said that some of the rooms were not fit for purpose, they were cluttered, had to share with other staff and they were small.

There were areas of poor practice where the trust needs to make improvements. Importantly, the trust must:

• ensure that all staff at the Head Injury Therapy Unit understand the incident reporting policy and report all incidents
• ensure that equipment and supplies are monitored and serviced appropriately to ensure that patients are not at risk of receiving treatment and care using defective or out-of-date equipment
• ensure that infection control procedures are followed and monitored in the Head Injury Therapy Unit so that patients are not put at risk.
• ensure that the rooms remain free from clutter.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

 Chief Inspector of Hospitals

Updated 11 February 2015

Overall, we have rated the Head Injury Therapy Unit to require improvement.

The unit was fully staffed with a team of specialised staff who adopted a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. Their approach to care was adapted to suit the individual needs of the patient however access to transport was an issue.

There were shortfalls in the management of safety in the department. There were issues with infection control, equipment maintenance and understanding the importance of reporting and learning from incidents. Staff were aware of the incident reporting tool but were unsure what would be a reportable incident.

Signposts were not clear on the hospital site which made the unit difficult to find. Patients were not offered transport unless they lived a certain distance away. The unit required refurbishment, although we were told they were moving soon. Some staff said that some of the rooms were not fit for purpose, they were cluttered, had to share with other staff and they were small.

Referral to treatment times were within 10 weeks below the 18 weeks target.

Staff felt well supported by their individual discipline specific managers and the Head Injury Therapy Unit manager.