North Middlesex Hospital has turned a corner

North Middlesex Hospital has turned a corner, but there is a lot more work that needs to be done”, says Joan Ryan MP. Joan Ryan MP has met with the Chief Executive of North Middlesex Hospital (NMUH), Libby McManus, to discuss the findings of the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report and to discuss how recent improvements in performance at the hospital can be sustained and developed over the long-term.

 Joan Ryan MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Enfield North, said:

“The people of Enfield deserve nothing less than a good hospital, where they can feel confident that they will receive the standard of treatment and care they deserve.

So I’m incredibly grateful to the more than 5,000 local residents who signed my petition and worked with me over the summer to save North Mid’s A&E from possible, partial closure. 

This campaign showed how important the hospital is to everyone in Enfield. And it allowed me to express the strength of our community’s desire to protect our local health services when I met with Government Health Ministers. 

I congratulate the senior management team and the hard-working, frontline clinical staff for helping to bring North Mid through its recent crisis.   The hospital has turned a corner, but now we need to ensure all necessary measures are put in place to support North Mid.

I’ll be keeping a very close eye on the progress being made at the hospital and will be visiting North Mid again in January to meet with the Chief Executive, doctors and nurses.”

In July 2016, a damning CQC report put the hospital’s A&E department at risk, as the inspection team raised serious concerns about the standard of treatment being offered to patients. The General Medical Council, who oversee the standards of training for doctors, warned that unless the hospital’s recruitment target was met the A&E would lose 26 junior doctors, forcing it to close.

The latest assessment of NMUH by the CQC – conducted in September, with the report published on 16th December – states there is “improved clinical governance and leadership of Urgent and Emergency Care” and “an increase in consultant and middle grade doctors in the Emergency Department.” Whilst the A&E is no longer graded as inadequate, it is one of the hospital’s seven core services which requires improvement. The eighth core service inspected, surgery, was rated as good. The hospital trust has been rated as requiring improvement overall.