Over the last two years we have inspected every Trust registered hospital and community base. We have completed annual inspections of the James Cook University Hospital and The Friarage as well as completing themed inspections at the hospitals, which looked at both Accident and Emergency departments as well has the Trust’s termination of pregnancy services. We found that the Trust encouraged us to identify any ways they could improve.

Teams of CQC staff have inspected all the locations and these teams included specialist advisors and experts by experience. Throughout the two years we have held regular meetings with Trust representatives and discussed work the Trust is completing to maintain and improve their service. We have found that over the two years the Trust has remained compliant with all the regulations.

Our central analytic team have constantly reviewed the data the Trust has submitted to the various bodies overseeing their work and used this to assess the performance of the Trust. The central team have also compared this information on performance against other Trusts both in the North East, across the country and against Trusts with similar size populations and services. The last published risk rating for the Trust placed them in band 6, which is the lowest risk rating.

We found that the Trust’s quality assurance system was effective. It covered all aspects of the service and did not lose sight of the needs of the patients using the community services.

We visited the Friary with a pharmacist inspector and expert by experience who used to be a hospital governor. We looked around all the hospital and spent time speaking with patients and staff on the ward and in the outpatient department. We spoke with eight patients and five relatives. We also reviewed medication practices, clinical care records and information about staff recruitment processes.

Our focus during this inspection was to look at whether the hospital met the care and welfare needs of patients, met patient nutritional needs, the recruitment process and the arrangements for managing medicines.

Patients and relatives told us that they thought the care they received was wonderful and many told us they would recommend the hospital to anyone who needed this level of care. People said, “The staff are very good I get all I need”, “The nurses are very good, it’s like one big happy family, the Sister came to shake my hand before going on holiday” and “The meals are on time, there is a good choice and the food is hot”.

We observed that staff were extremely empathetic, considerate and were sensitive to patients. We found that staff monitored patients’ weight and involved dietary specialist when needed. We saw that the Trust operated robust recruitment processes. We found that the medicines were managed safely.