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South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust first ‘Outstanding’ acute and community healthcare provider in the Midlands

Staff at South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWFT) are delighted after being rated as an 'Outstanding' provider.

The Trust is the only general acute and community provider in the West Midlands region, and one of only 10 nationally, to receive an 'Outstanding' rating. It confirms that the care provided to local people is amongst the very best in the NHS. This rating is the highest awarded by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.

The rating follows inspections of a number of clinical services across the organisation's acute hospital and community services. In addition, the CQC carried out 'Well Led' and 'Use of Resources' inspections. All areas inspected were given ‘outstanding’ ratings. Examples of outstanding practice were identified across many of the Trust's services and the inspectors were extremely complimentary in their observations of the culture of the organisation:

  • “Patients and their families were truly respected and valued as individuals by an exceptional service.”
  • “There was compassionate, inclusive and effective leadership at all levels. Leaders had the skills and abilities to run the service and deliver high-quality, patient centred care. Staff understood the trust’s vision and values, and their role in achieving them. Staff felt truly respected, supported and valued”
  • “Staff worked well together for the benefit of patients, advised them on how to lead healthier lives, supported them to make decisions about their care, and had access to good information.”
  • “The trust demonstrated that innovation and continuous improvements underpinned clinical services delivery, with various examples of productivity improvements achieved, which had enabled the trust to continue delivering services sustainably, despite rising demand and capacity restrictions.”

Trust Chief Executive Glen Burley said: "I have always been proud to be the CEO of this Trust, but reading the CQC's report I feel prouder than ever. I want to congratulate and thank our entire workforce because fantastic achievements like this are only possible through real team work. The inspection team picked up on this collaborative approach in addition to many other aspects of the unique culture we have at SWFT. Together we have developed a national reputation for being one of the best providers in the World’s best healthcare service, our great NHS, and this rating cements it.

"Although we are now officially outstanding we are aware that we are not perfect. I want to reassure our patients and partners that we will continue to strive to be even better, using this as a catalyst to be more innovative."

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