The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust Headquarters is the part of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust NHS Trust (RCHT) that organises and administers the services that the trust provides in a variety of locations throughout Cornwall. Some of the services provided are hosted in buildings owned and managed by Peninsula Community Health (PCH).

During this inspection we visited outpatient clinics at Falmouth Community Hospital, Camborne and Redruth Community Hospital, and St Austell Community Hospital over three days in October 2013.

During our visits we spoke with 12 patients. We also spoke with staff employed by PCH who facilitated the clinics on behalf of the trust and RCHT employed staff who also ran clinics in the community locations. They included consultants, specialist practitioners, nursing and administrative staff.

We saw patient’s privacy and dignity were being maintained. Patients we spoke with told us they were seen in single rooms with the door shut.

We saw the departments were clean and tidy. Infection control procedures were robust and in line with legislation. There was information about infection control readily available throughout the departments.

Patients were protected against the risks associated with medicines because the provider had appropriate arrangements in place to manage medicines.

Patients who used the service were consistently protected against the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment, as records were updated and stored securely in order to protect people’s confidentiality.

We spoke with six people when we visited clinic sites during the inspection. They all told us they were treated with dignity and their privacy had been maintained. One person said “they are all very nice" and "I like coming here as it is not far to travel".

We were told that doctors and specialist nurses often had to communicate with GP's, community nursing services and social workers to pass on instructions about a persons care or to get more information about a persons current health issues.

We spoke to staff at the clinics we visited. We were told that they were fully staffed.

Observation of Peninsula Community Health (PCH) and Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) staff (including medical staff, nursing staff, care staff and ancillary staff) showed they worked using safe practices and were very aware of their environment and the type of patients they were dealing with.

There was a range of RCHT policies and procedures in place to ensure patient records and medical records were kept and maintained for each person who used the service.