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Manchester hospital involved with joint trust plans rated ‘requires improvement’

One of the hospitals due to form part of Manchester’s joint trust has been rated ‘requires improvement’ by the CQC, which raised concerns about staffing levels.

University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) was rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the CQC inspectors, who found that it suffered from high turnover and sickness absence rates and some nursing staff, recently redeployed in community services, lacked the competencies for the role. However, it said the trust had a higher than average proportion of junior doctors and consultants in the workforce.

It also said that the trust had suffered from changes in management and was in a transitional phase following the appointment of a new executive team, led by interim chief executive Diane Whittingham.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said: “The UHSM faces a number of challenges. In recent months there have been a number of significant senior executive changes which had affected the long term strategy and staff morale.

“The trust acknowledged that it had lost clarity regarding its strategic direction. Actions were being taken to refocus the strategic approach against the reconfiguration of health and social care services in Manchester.”

However, the CQC found some areas to commend, including improvements in the treatment of patients with sepsis and award-winning bereavement midwifery and children’s cystic fibrosis services.

Proposals to join UHSM with the Pennine Acute NHS Trust and Central Manchester University Hospital NHS FT were recently approved by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority health and social care committee, who said it would lead to an improved quality of care in Manchester.

Whittingham said: “The report highlights a number of the challenges we face as a Trust, including staff recruitment and retention challenges, our bed occupancy rates and the uncertainty we were experiencing as a result of the leadership team going through a period of transition at the time of the inspection. We are committed to addressing these challenges to ensure we maintain our strong focus on providing our patients with the safe and high quality care that they deserve."