Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (MCHFT) is an acute hospital trust in Cheshire. It runs Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Victoria Infirmary in Northwich, and Elmhurst Intermediate Care Centre in Winsford. MCHFT was established as an NHS Trust in April 1991, and became an NHS Foundation Trust in April 2008.[1] The trust is currently led by Chair of the Board of Directors Dennis Dunn and CEO Ian Moston.[2]

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
TypeNHS hospital trust
HospitalsLeighton Hospital
ChairDennis Dunn
Chief executiveIan Moston
Staffc.3,500
Websitewww.mcht.nhs.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the Trust provides acute, maternity, child health and intermediate care services to a population of approximately 300,000 living in and around Alsager, Crewe, Congleton, Knutsford, Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich, Sandbach, and Winsford.

Performance

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Four-hour target in the emergency department quarterly figures from NHS England Data from https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/

The CQC made a comprehensive inspection of the Trust and its three sites in October 2014. Its report, published in January 2015, gave the Trust an overall "good" rating.[3]

Leighton Hospital Maternity Services received the Mothercare Award for Midwifery Service of the Year from the Royal College of Midwives in 2015.[4] That same year it also achieved full accreditation from UNICEF's Baby Friendly Initiative[5][6] and Level 3 status (the highest available) from the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts.[5]

In 2012, CHKS awarded the Trust its ‘Most Improved Trust in the Country’ award,[7] recognising progress made by its staff and services. In May 2014, the Trust was named as one of the best in the country for the third year in a row in the CHKS 40Top Hospitals award[citation needed].

In the early 2010s the Trust had "higher than expected" mortality rates, and work took place to identify and address the causes. When the Health and Social Care Information Centre published its mortality data in July 2014, the Trust had returned to the "as expected" range. The Trust also uses the Risk Adjusted Mortality Index (RAMI), and worked to make consistent improvement in this area; the RAMI figures covering the twelve months to July 2014 suggested the Trust was performing better than the national average.

In 2015, the Health Service Journal named the Trust as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for. At that time, 66% of its 3,003 full time equivalent staff recommended it as a place to work.[8]

Facilities

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Spring 2014 saw the first patients treated in the new Theatre suite at Leighton Hospital. Part of the £22.8million project which also saw the creation of a new Critical Care unit, the new Theatres offer opportunities to further develop existing ways of working in a way that will maximise the benefits of new theatre designs such as barn theatres and integrated theatres.

In 2018 the trust applied for £1.4 million in capital funding from NHS Improvement to fund a portable ward next to the A&E department, which is overcrowded, but funding was refused when the trust said this would not lead to a 50% reduction in breaches of the Four Hour Emergency Target over winter.[9]

In 2022 the outstanding maintenance bill was £280 million, the sixth largest in the English NHS.[10]

It is planning a joint electronic patient record system with East Cheshire NHS Trust using Meditech's Expanse, which is cloud based and should operate from 2024.[11]

Relationship with private sector

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The Trust uses BMI Healthcare's South Cheshire Hospital to help with elective surgery capacity problems, usually in the winter. The two buildings are connected by a covered corridor.[12] It was announced in February 2019 that the Trust planned to acquire the 32-bed hospital, which stands adjacent to Leighton Hospital, near Crewe.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "About us". Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  2. ^ "Board of Directors". Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  3. ^ "All inspections: Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Care Quality Commission". www.cqc.org.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Leighton's maternity unit named best in the country". Northwich Guardian. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  5. ^ a b "'Baby friendly' Leighton Hospital celebrates hat-trick of honours". Northwich Guardian. 5 June 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  6. ^ "Mid Cheshire Hospitals receives baby friendly award". Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  7. ^ "CHKS - Insight for better healthcare". www.chks.co.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2023.
  8. ^ "HSJ reveals the best places to work in 2015". Health Service Journal. 7 July 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  9. ^ "Patients will suffer after NHS Improvement withholds funds says CEO". Health Service Journal. 23 October 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  10. ^ Appleby, John (11 November 2022). "Chart of the week: The cost of NHS backlog maintenance hits an all-time high". Nuffield Trust. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  11. ^ "East Cheshire and Mid Cheshire to launch joint EPR in 2024". Digital Health. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  12. ^ "Commissioning supplement: External providers can lend a hand". Health Service Journal. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  13. ^ Jennie Aitken (20 February 2019). "NHS trust moves to take over private hospital". Latest updates: Staffordshire and Cheshire. BBC. Retrieved 21 February 2019.