Braintree Community Hospital is part of the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust (MEHT). Braintree Community Hospital was taken over by Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust in August 2014. The trust provides surgical and outpatient services at Braintree Community Hospital, with endoscopy services and the inpatient ward being run by alternative providers.

We carried out this inspection as part of our commitment to inspect all NHS trusts in England. Our rationale for choosing this service was based upon its recent change over to Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. This was a scheduled and announced inspection, which took place on 27 November 2014.

Overall, we have found that the ratings and provision of care in each core service inspected at Braintree Community Hospital was good. The care provided to people in surgery and outpatients was good, services were effective, the staff were caring, and locally within Braintree, the services were well led. Overall, we have rated Braintree Community Hospital as a good service.

Our key findings were as follows:

• The staff working at Braintree Community Hospital were still transitioning into new working regimes under Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. This meant that there were changes to management, procedures, paperwork and booking systems, which were taking some time to adjust to.
• It was evident that throughout the hospital, the staff were caring, dedicated and passionate.
• The League of Friends volunteer group was a feature of the service, with support for the volunteers voiced in each department we visited.
• Patients, visitors and relatives were highly complementary about the catering service in the café area, with the quality of the food being praised.

• The hospital environment was modern and visibly clean throughout.
• There was ample parking on site, which was free for patients, which was positive.
• Staffing levels were sufficient, though there were notable shortages of nursing staff, on occasions, within outpatients and surgery. Recruitment to those vacant posts was underway.

However, there were also areas of poor practice where the trust needs to make improvements.

The trust should:

• Ensure that there are a sufficient number of nursing staff recruited and in post to provide services.
• Ensure that lessons are learned from incidents, serious incidents and complaints.

Professor Sir Mike Richards

Chief Inspector of Hospitals