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The Royal Free Hospital

Provider Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region London Last inspected 6 Jan 2021

Location rating: Requires Improvement  View location on CQC

Location ratings by domain

Five CQC key questions

Ratings held for this CQC location under the inspection framework, last inspected 6 January 2021. Ratings extracted from individual reports are shown separately below.

Safe
Requires Improvement
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Requires Improvement
Well-led
Requires Improvement

Most recent report indexed for actions

The date and rating here are from an individual report, not necessarily the location's latest assessment. Report ratings are extracted with AI; verify the original PDF.

Type: Location
Date: 19 May 2023
Rating extracted from this report: Inspected but not rated
Actions indexed: 4 must-do 1 should-do

Read this inspection PDF

AI-extracted 3 Jun 2026

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 4 must-do 1 should-do

Must-do actions (4)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 4
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure that all consultants meet the trust target for training in modules relating to resuscitation and immediate life support.
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(c)
⚠ Not all medical staff had completed training in key skills, including safeguarding training. The hospital was not achieving its 90% target for mandatory training. Low compliance rates with some essential training topics such as resuscitation, safeguarding and infection control.
Must-do action 2 of 4
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure that all paediatric resuscitation trolleys have consistent regular checks.
Regulation: Regulation 12(2)(e)
⚠ A paediatric trolley in the main theatres area was not checked since mid-December 2022, and even when it was checked, this was done on three occasions for the entire month.
Must-do action 3 of 4
Must do
Well-led
The trust must ensure that there is regular audit of compliance of staff with processes for managing sepsis.
Regulation: Regulation 17(2)(a)
⚠ The provider had not completed an audit of sepsis compliance since 2019. The service did not assess compliance with the national guidance in relation to the recognition, diagnosis, and management of sepsis.
Must-do action 4 of 4
Must do
Well-led
The trust must ensure that the risk register entry relating to the purchase of new ketone machines, covers the clinical risk and mitigations around the shortage of the machines.
Regulation: Regulation 17(2)(b)
⚠ The clinical risks around the shortage of ketone machines had not been fully recorded in the trust risk register. Two of the three wards visited didn’t have their own ketone machines and staff had to borrow these from another ward. Elevated levels of ketones in patient’s blood or urine can …

Should-do actions (1)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 1
Should do
Well-led
The trust should ensure that as many staff as possible are aware of the learning from incidents.