January 2012 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

SWBTB (1/12) 276 (a)
Summary of our findings
for the essential standards of quality and safety
Our current overall judgement
Sandwell General Hospital was meeting all the essential standards
of quality and safety.
The summary below describes why we carried out this review, what we found and any
action required.
Why we carried out this review
We carried out this review to check whether Sandwell General Hospital had made
improvements in relation to:
Outcome 01 - Respecting and involving people who use services
Outcome 05 - Meeting nutritional needs
How we carried out this review
We reviewed all the information we hold about this provider, carried out a visit on 16
December 2011, observed how people were being cared for, looked at records of people
who use services, talked to staff and talked to people who use services.
What people told us
Sandwell General Hospital is part of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
(the trust). In March 2011 and August 2011 we carried out reviews of Sandwell General
Hospital. These reviews were part of a targeted inspection programme in acute National
Health Service (NHS) hospitals to assess how well older people are treated during their
hospital stay. In particular we focused on whether people were treated with dignity and
respect and whether people's nutritional needs were being met. Both our March 2011 and
August 2011 reviews showed that Sandwell General Hospital was not compliant with the
outcome areas we assessed which were:
Outcome 01- Respecting and involving people who use services (we assessed that there
were moderate concerns in this area both in March and August 2011).
Outcome 05- Meeting nutritional needs (we assessed that there were major concerns in
this area in March 2011 and minor concerns in August 2011).
Following our August 2011 review the trust closed a ward called Newton 4 as this is the
ward where we identified shortfalls and concerns.The trust have kept us updated with their
plans to make improvements.
We carried out this December 2011 review to check whether Sandwell General Hospital
had made improvements. The wide range of evidence that we gathered during this review
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