Hospitals fail at meeting national standards
Posted: September 19, 2013
Posted in: Medical Negligence
Following numerous unannounced inspections, two Lincolnshire hospitals have failed to meet all national standards and have been criticised for their worryingly low staffing levels and lack of basic training. Lincoln County Hospital and Boston Pilgrim Hospital both operate under the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which was put under special measures following the Keogh review in July.
The trust failed in the following areas:
- Staffing
- Supporting staff
- Management of medicines
- Care and welfare of those using the services
- Respecting and involving those using the services
- Assessing and monitoring quality of service provision
- Record keeping
The United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust is due to be taken over by the managers of high-performing hospitals, while further plans for all of the 11 failing trusts were announced by the health secretary Jeremy Hunt on Thursday morning. These plans include bonus payments available to trusts that manage to drastically raise standards.
Inspectors from the independent CQC found that the trust’s low staffing levels severely impacted “the care and treatment of patients, communication between clinical staff, the maintenance of patient records and access to staff training and appraisals”.
The chief executive of the trust, Jane Lewington, said that major changes had been made following the inspection results. The trust have spent £4m on nurse recruitment with 165 new nurses hired since April and 87 new qualifiers due to start this month. She said: “We take our responsibilities to provide excellent patient care extremely seriously and are focused on meeting constantly rising expectations around our quality of care.”
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