STAFF in the A&E Department at the Royal Oldham Hospital are celebrating after achieving SCAPE accreditation.

SCAPE accreditation is a standard that has been set by the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) NHS Group to provide reassurance to patients that they are receiving safe, clean and personal care every time that they visit a hospital within the NCA group.

The A&E team at hospital are the first team at the hospital to gain this special accreditation, which demonstrates to patients that the team are delivering consistently high quality, patient-focused care.

For a department to achieve SCAPE status, it must have maintained Level 2 green NAAS status for 20 months - a total of 3 NAAS assessments.

The Nursing Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) is a performance framework system that was originally introduced at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

It has since been introduced on Pennine Acute Hospital sites, when the two trusts began to work together as part of the new Northern Care Alliance Group.

The NAAS scheme measures the quality of nursing care delivered by individuals and teams and provides evidence that teams are meeting the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC’s) fundamental compassionate care standards - the 6Cs of: care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment.

The NAAS assessment measures 13 standards covering areas including patient safety, infection control, safeguarding, medicines management and a number of other key care standards. The scheme helps support nurses to understand how they deliver care, identify what works well and areas where further improvement is needed.

Teams that want to achieve and maintain both Green NAAS and SCAPE accreditation need to demonstrate consistently high quality care and patient-focused standards are being met in their department. They are also asked to showcase best practice to other wards and departments throughout the organisation.

Teams have to undergo a rigorous assessment process to achieve the accreditation and have to present to a SCAPE review panel.

The team is asked how they propose to maintain standards and how they will showcase best practice to the rest of the organisation.

Many factors are considered by the panel, including the department’s performance indicators i.e. sickness and absence, number of complaints and any risk management issues.

Departments with SCAPE accreditation continue to be reviewed by a panel on a yearly basis. They have an annual NAAS assessment and are set specific SCAPE competencies that they must meet.

Julie Winterbottom, lead nurse in the A&E department, said: “We are thrilled to achieve SCAPE status. Everyone has really embraced the principles behind the NAAS and SCAPE accreditation schemes and we are fully focused on delivering the best patient care possible. All the team have worked really hard to ensure that we consistently deliver safe, personal and effective care to all our patients, in what can sometimes be a challenging environment.”