Government regulator CQC rates St Luke’s care ‘outstanding’

5th June 2026

Celebrating a top rating of “Outstanding” from the CQC

Staff at St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth are celebrating a top rating of “Outstanding” from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the official government body responsible for assessing and regulating all England’s health and care providers.

The CQC report, issued this week following their autumn 2024 inspection, acknowledges that St Luke’s services, delivered in the community and at its specialist unit at Turnchapel, are performing “exceptionally well”, with consistently positive feedback received from patients, their families, staff and partner organisations.

What we achieve is all about teamwork

Chief executive George Lillie said he was thrilled that the hospice had maintained the highest standards it achieved at the CQC’s last inspection back in 2016.

He said: “This is fantastic news and a wonderful testament to our ongoing commitment to provide the very best care possible for all our patients as well as support for their loved ones.

“What we achieve is all about teamwork and our collective belief that together we can make a positive difference to the people we look after.

“Our brilliant clinical and social care teams are on the frontline, day in and day out, delivering our compassionate end of life care to patients and their families, but they can only do what they do with the consistent and effective support of everyone else in the organisation. We are immensely proud of them all.

“But we will never rest on our laurels as we keep working, alongside our health and care partners, to provide the best end of life care possible for our community.”

The CQC looked at St Luke’s care from the patient’s point of view, making sure that their interests are always top priority. They reviewed five separate questions, assessing whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

They went out on visits with our community team and spent time in our specialist unit; they collected verbal feedback from patients, staff, leaders and partners and they examined documentary evidence of our records and procedures.

The full CQC report can be found here, detailing how we achieved our overall top rating, with “Outstanding” in four out of five categories.

Highlights of the CQC report

Here are a few highlights of the inspectors’ findings and comments, including examples of the excellence they acknowledged.

St Luke’s care consistently received positive feedback from both patients and other health care providers. People using services and their family members were all positive about the staff, saying they felt supported and were treated with warmth and kindness. Family members felt safe to raise concerns and confident that these would be addressed.
The inspectors noted that care was delivered by a team of qualified and experienced staff who work closely with other organisations to try and make sure the patient’s journey is joined up and flows well.
They said St Luke’s engaged well with partner organisations, helping to drive and share good practice and education in end of life care; 92 per cent of those surveyed agreed that St Luke’s should have an end of life coordination role within the local community.
People felt involved in their care and there was good continuity, which made them comfortable to ask for support.
A couple of examples of wonderful feedback from family members are quoted in the CQC report: