The Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary has been rated as “outstanding” by the independent inspectors, while Sunderland Royal Hospital has been rated as “good”.
In the most recent report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the RVI in Newcastle upholds the highest possible quality of care. The hospital’s facilities and level of care for children and young people, emergency services, end of life care and critical care, are all areas singled out as as “outstanding” by the commission.
The report goes on to further explain that people who used its services “were truly respected and valued as individuals and were empowered as partners in their care, practically and emotionally, by an exceptional and distinctive service.”
The service has continued to uphold the highest of standards since the previous report in 2016, which also rated the hospital as “outstanding”.
Dame Jackie Daniel, chief executive of the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are all incredibly proud to receive such positive recognition from the CQC. It really is an amazing achievement and down to each and every member of staff who work tirelessly, day in and day out, for our patients.
“Newcastle Hospitals is very much a team; staff care deeply about the work they do and it’s their compassion, commitment and their energy to change and innovate that makes our organisation so special.”
Meanwhile, Sunderland Royal Hospital has improved upon its previous rating of “requiring improvement” after their latest inspection. Services that are stated to have seen the greatest increase in quality are the recruitment of nursing and medical staff, and pharmacy initiatives to help support older people.
However, despite the improvement of their services, the hospital is still lacking in comparison to the Newcastle RVI. Areas of improvement that were notified as nurse staffing levels, inconsistent medicine management across different departments, and resuscitation and emergency equipment not always being checked regularly
Margaret Lennox suffered a bad stroke in 2017, which required a significant amount of time for recovery and rehab in both the RVI and Sunderland Royal hospitals. She claims that the standard of care at the RVI was superior.
“The RVI is a much bigger and spacious hospital in comparison to Sunderland,” said Margaret, “It was also a lot cleaner.
“The list is endless. In a nutshell, RVI: Yay, Sunderland: Nay.”
To view the full reports, visit:
RVI – https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RX4E5
Sunderland Royal – https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RLNGL