09.01.15
‘Inadequate’ Hinchingbrooke faces special measures – CQC report
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is to recommend that Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust is placed into special measures, after its services were rated ‘inadequate’ for safety, care and being well-led.
The damning report from the regulator comes the same day as Circle is in talks to pull out of its contract to manage the first privately run NHS hospital.
Following inspections in September 2014, the CQC stated that people in some areas of the trust were at “risk of avoidable harm”.
In particular, the provision of care on Apple Tree Ward, a medical ward, required urgent action to ensure the safety of patients. According to the CQC, this was raised with management during the inspection visit.
During the visit, the inspectors said that they observed six interactions from agency and substantive staff who were neither emotionally supportive nor demonstrative of compassionate care.
The regulator added that the “the lack of recognition of patient’s privacy and dignity within the A&E and urgent care services, as well as in outpatients, and the number of overnight bed moves within the surgical wards, all require improvement to ensure that patients are cared for appropriately”.
Within the CQC report it was noted that a response to call bells in a number of areas, in Juniper Ward, Apple Tree ward and the Reablement Unit for example, was “so poor that two patients of the stated that they had been told to soil themselves”.
Since the inspection the Hinchingbrooke has been working with the support of the Trust Development Authority (TDA) to address these issues. Actions have included the implementation of a daily assurance tool to highlight vulnerable patients and to raise issues on each ward and department with the senior management team. A review of the trust’s governance structures has also been commissioned to ensure that “they are robust and fit for purpose”.
CQC also noted that there was a lack of paediatric cover within the trust’s A&E department, which meant that there was a risk to patient safety.
The regulator added that while the senior management team of the trust are ‘well known’ within the hospital; the values and beliefs of the trust were not embedded, nor were staff engaged or empowered to raise concerns by taking responsibility to Stop the Line, which is a process designed to empower members of staff to raise immediate concerns when they believe that patient safety is being compromised.
However, prior to undertaking the inspection, the CQC spoke with stakeholders and reviewed the information it held about the trust. Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust had been identified as low risk (in band 6, the lowest band) on the CQCs Intelligent Monitoring system.
Steve Melton, the chief executive of Circle, criticised the report, saying of the CQC: “We are not the only hospital to find their process problematic. We believe that inconsistent and conflicting regulatory regimes compound the challenges for acute hospitals in the current environment.”
He said ahead of its publication today: “We understand their report will be published soon, and fully expect it to be unbalanced and to disagree with many of its conclusions.”
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