London’s biggest hospital trust was today praised for making “substantial improvement” as it began to emerge from special measures after a four-year battle.
Barts Health, which runs five hospitals serving 2.6 million people in east London, was said by the Care Quality Commission to have transformed its patient care.
NHS Improvement removed it from special measures for quality, but the trust, which is expected to post an £84.7 million deficit in 2018-19, remains in financial special measures.
Today the trust was rated as “good” for the effectiveness and caring aspects of its care and in terms of leadership, but overall it remained at “requires improvement”.
Professor Ted Baker, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said the trust had made “real, consistent progress”.
He added: “While the overall rating remains ‘requires improvement’, there has been substantial improvement in the quality of services.”
However, there remain concerns about “inadequate” maternity services at Newham hospital and the “poor” performance against the four-hour target in the trust’s three A&Es.
Alwen Williams, chief executive of Barts Health, said: “Today is a significant step forward in our improvement journey.”
