Agenda item

Report of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.

The Health and Housing Scrutiny Committee considered the draft Quality Accounts 2023/2024 for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust. 

The Committee noted the positive performance set out against the 2023/2024 priorities, expressing satisfaction that most services had been rated as “good” and the “outstanding” rating of the End-of-Life Care service.

Members noted that the Trust has a zero tolerance for pressure ulcers and on-site infections alongside and reinforcing the core concepts of hand-hygiene and cleanliness and the emphasis on early-recognition from staff in order to isolate patients appropriately.

Questions were raised regarding cases of sepsis and its early-warning signs, the desired standards of maternity care, sustainability of the Trust’s desired quality priorities, staffing levels, staff satisfaction, assessment criteria for new patients, the availability of staff trained to handle mental health issues.   The Trust’s representative provided satisfactory responses to all queries and took note of member’s suggestions, such as including Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) infection levels in the final draft.

Members noted the quality priorities for 2024/2025 which reflected the Quality Strategy priorities and further priorities where further work was required to meet the 2023/2024 objectives.

Members welcomed the opportunity to comment on the Trust’s Quality Accounts and would like to receive six monthly reports on the progress being made, to enable them to provide a more detailed and valuable contribution to the Quality Accounts in the future.

RESOLVED – Members agreed that the Chair of this meeting be given authority to agree the written response to County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust on this draft 2023/2024 Quality Accounts in order to meet the 23 June 2024 deadline for response.