Chief Inspector report
“Patients and the public rightly expect that hospitals and services are safe and clean and I believe they should feel assured and confident about the findings in this report. It is encouraging that we are seeing evidence of real improvement including generally cleaner wards and patient equipment. This improvement is reflected in the reduced number of requirements and recommendations we have had to make, and this is particularly pleasing given that the vast majority of our inspections were unannounced. Nevertheless, there is no room for complacency as we continue to identify key areas for improvement. I am confident that our programme of predominantly unannounced inspections is paying dividends and we will continue to scrutinise hospitals in this way, working with NHS boards to focus on those that areas that still need to improve. I feel cautiously optimistic that we are seeing progress but NHS boards must not take their eye off the ball and should always be ready for inspection.”
Susan
Brimelow
Chief Inspector