Source · CQC inspection

Guy's Hospital

Provider Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region London Last inspected 3 Jun 2026

Overall rating: Good  View full CQC report

Domain ratings

Five CQC key questions
Safe
Requires Improvement
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Good

Current CQC assessment

Single Assessment Framework

From 2024 CQC rates services through ongoing assessments rather than comprehensive inspections.

Good Assessed 3 June 2026
The service is performing well and meeting our expectations.
Date of assessment: 10 and 11 March 2026. Guy's Hospital is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust . The hospital has 400 beds and is a major hub for planned (elective) care across south east London. It is also a national leader in specialist services including orthopaedics, ENT, urology, breast, kidney (including transplant), and dental care. This assessment looked at urgent and emergency care to assess the quality of the care received by patients using those services. The rating of urgent and emergency care has been combined …

Ratings by service

Urgent and emergency services
Good
Feb 2026

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 2 must-do 22 should-do

Must-do actions (2)

Legal requirements based on regulation breaches identified during inspection.

Must-do action 1 of 2
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure staff within the skin biopsy clinic follow medicine administration procedures in line with trust policy.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment)
⚠ Staff in the dermatology clinic continued to administer medicines without the necessary prescription, despite this issue being highlighted to the senior staff in clinic.
Must-do action 2 of 2
Must do
Safe
The trust must ensure all staff comply with the trust policy for medicine management and administration.
Regulation: Regulation 12 (Safe care and treatment)
⚠ Medicine administration was not always in line with trust policy.

Should-do actions (22)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should improve the uptake of mandatory training, including safeguarding to meet its own expected targets.
Should-do action 2 of 22
Should do
Effective
The trust should enable all staff have an opportunity to receive a performance review.
Should-do action 3 of 22
Should do
Responsive
The trust should continue its work aimed at improving the constitutional targets, including referral to treatment times, and reduce the number of patients with overdue follow up appointments.
Should-do action 4 of 22
Should do
Well-led
The trust should consider how local risk registers are developed in all service areas and the mitigations therein described are appropriate.
Should-do action 5 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should enable the required equipment maintenance to be followed and items are checked and services according to its plan.
Should-do action 6 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should make sure its staff follow the policy for medicines management and administration.
Should-do action 7 of 22
Should do
Responsive
The trust should consider how it may develop seven-day outpatients services.
Should-do action 8 of 22
Should do
Well-led
The trust should continue work to improve recruitment and retention of staff in some service areas.
Should-do action 9 of 22
Should do
Effective
The trust should continue with the programme of improvements with in the IT systems.
Should-do action 10 of 22
Should do
Caring
The trust should consider how it can make the bereavement suite less clinical in its decoration and design it in a way that makes it homelier in maternity.
Should-do action 11 of 22
Should do
Responsive
The trust should review the timeliness of its responses to complaints from women and their partners who used maternity services, as these were taking longer than the trust’s target.
Should-do action 12 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should reinforce the importance of the completion of modified early obstetric warning score (MEOWs) scores, and that these are completed fully in all notes, particularly in the high dependency unit (HDU).
Should-do action 13 of 22
Should do
Effective
The trust should consider how it can enable applications for deprivation of liberty safeguards to be made at all times.
Should-do action 14 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should ensure medical staff complete the required mandatory training, and the trust needs to be able to provide up to date training records for all staff groups.
Should-do action 15 of 22
Should do
Effective
The trust should ensure appraisal rates meet the 95% target.
Should-do action 16 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should improve mandatory training rates for nursing staff and allied health professionals.
Should-do action 17 of 22
Should do
Well-led
The trust should collect medical staffing mandatory training rates for outpatients.
Should-do action 18 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should enable staff treating children in outpatient clinics to complete level three children safeguarding training.
Should-do action 19 of 22
Should do
Responsive
The trust should continue to work to improve DNA rates and 62-day cancer waiting times targets.
Should-do action 20 of 22
Should do
Well-led
The trust should enable the risk register to be fully completed with up to date risks.
Should-do action 21 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should develop local risks assessment to ensure all staff in a specific area are aware of local risks and mitigating actions.
Should-do action 22 of 22
Should do
Safe
The trust should improve compliance with the equipment maintenance programme to ensure staff are only using equipment that have been tested and serviced annually.

Location details

CQC ID: RJ121
Local authority: Southwark
Region: London

Inspection report

Type: Location
Date: 23 July 2019
Rating: Good
Actions: 2 must-do 22 should-do
AI-extracted 2 Jun 2026