Following the publication of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) well-led inspection report into University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board published the following statement.

Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board today welcomed the CQC report into University Hospitals Birmingham which recognises the positive progress that has been made by the new leadership at the Trust over the last year, whist acknowledging the significant scale of the challenges that still lie ahead.

Since the publication of the review by Professor Mike Bewick in June 2023, the Trust have:

  • Undertaken one of the biggest reviews of culture in the NHS involving over 4,000 members of their staff;
  • Put new, local leadership teams in each of their hospitals to better support local staff and work more effectively with local health, social care and voluntary sector partners;
  • Appointed new non-executive members to their Board and significantly improved Board governance at the Trust;
  • Appointed a new Chair and four new Executive Directors, including a new Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer, to drive the changes identified by the Bewick Review and in the Trust’s improvement plan.

At the same time, staff at the Trust have continued to make significant inroads into bringing down some of the longest waiting times. In April 2022, there were 9,573 patients who had waited more than 78 weeks at UHB, this has reduced to zero in December 2023 (the latest available published data) which places the Trust the joint best nationally of 170 acute providers. Patients waiting over 65 weeks has also fallen considerably from 5,692 as of March 2023, to 1,307 as of December 2023. The Trust continues to focus on delivering zero 65 week waits by the end of March 2024.

Despite being clear on the significant challenges that lie ahead, the CQC report did note that:

  • There were improvements in senior leaders becoming more visible and approachable in the Trust for patients and staff;
  • They heard a lot of positive comments from almost all the staff they spoke with in focus groups, including administration staff, and more junior nursing staff, about their own managers and the support and particularly great teamwork they experienced;
  • There was recognition from the new non-executive directors of how the organisation was moving at a fast pace to implement change and particularly the new structure of governance. The risks from this fast pace of change were understood and considered as acceptable to see major improvement.

The impact of the rapid change programme being undertaken by the new leadership at the Trust and supported by the ICB and NHS England (NHS E), will take some time to have full effect – something the CQC identified when they inspected the Trust in October last year. In particular, changing the culture at UHB – which is so important to retaining and attracting the best NHS staff to work in Birmingham and Solihull – will take time but, as recognised by the CQC – the new leadership team at the Trust have made a positive start. Local authority councillors, through scrutiny committees and patient representatives from Healthwatch have been kept up to date on progress and given regular opportunity to challenge progress, as have local MPs. The Trust have not shied away from acknowledging the findings of each review or the improvements needed and have engaged staff, stakeholders, regulators and system partners with openness and transparency. This should be acknowledged and welcomed.

The ICB will continue to work together with the Trust and NHS E to ensure that the actions from the inspection report are reflected in ongoing improvement work. Our priority will remain supporting the Trust to continue the positive momentum achieved through the improvements delivered so far as well as ensuring they deliver their ambitious plans for the benefit of staff and patients.