I refer to the article on May 14 which summarises the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report into the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. We are extremely pleased with the overall rating of ‘good’ for the Trust and a rating of ‘good’ across all five of the standards or ‘domains’ upon which the CQC judges the services and care that we provide for patients.
The article presents a rather unbalanced picture, focusing on the 11 areas of the Trust where issues requiring improvement were identified and largely ignoring the 104 areas that were rated as good.
- Sir Jonathan Michael of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
Your report may give readers the impression that the John Radcliffe Hospital is struggling and requires many improvements. This is not the case and a balanced article would have shown that six out of eight clinical services at the JR that were inspected by the CQC were rated as good.
The feedback from patients and members of the public provided to the CQC at two open meetings, one in Oxford and one in Banbury was overwhelmingly positive about the quality of care that patients had received in every one of our four hospitals.
We don’t mind criticism where it is due and expect to be held to account for our failings. We recognise that there are aspects of our services where further improvement is needed but I would like to emphasise that the overall message of the report was one of good quality care provided by committed and compassionate staff, of whom I am very proud.
It is a pity that your paper was not able to celebrate the positive aspects of this report.
I would like to reassure the readers of the Oxford Mail that they have access to an excellent range of high quality, compassionate hospital services on their doorstep and that the quality of these services has been independently rated as good through this very rigorous and detailed inspection.
Sir Jonathan Michael CEO, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
Today’s letters
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