A hospital that serves the south of this district has been issued with a warning and told to improve its Urgent and Emergency Care and Medical Care by assessors.
The departments at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn has had its rating ‘downgraded’ by the Care Quality Commission.
It follows an unannounced inspection last April.
The warning was subsequently issued for on May 1 ‘for failing to meet the regulations relating to safe care and treatment, storage and management of medicines, good governance, and a lack of privacy and dignity’.
In Urgent and Emergency Care services inspectors say they found that mandatory training, including safeguarding, hadn’t been carried out, and that leaders ‘hadn’t always made sure equipment was serviced and it wasn’t clear if it was fit for purpose, putting people at risk of harm’.
Leadership was also criticised in Medical Dare as that department, ‘didn’t always mitigate’ for patient risks or make them fully aware of care plan options.
Overall the hospital remains good’ at caring but is now ‘requires improvement’ for every other category.
The Urgent and Emergency Care is rated ‘good’ still too but requires improvement in all other categories.
All categories require improvement in relation to Medical Care.
Sarah Ivory-Donnelly, deputy director of hospitals in the East of England, said: “When we inspected The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we found the safety and quality of care across both services had declined.
“The trust also needed to do more to reduce waiting times in urgent and emergency care.
“In urgent and emergency services, people and their families were positive about the care they received and told us staff treated them with kindness and respect.
“However, they felt that communication around waiting times could be better. During the inspection it was clear the department wasn’t meeting its 15-minute triage target, something that was also flagged as an area for improvement in our last assessment.
“We observed that people had to wait a long time to be seen within the department which impacted on their experiences and outcomes. Staff also weren’t monitoring people’s risk of deterioration in a timely and consistent way, and we had specific concerns around how staff stored and monitored medicines.
“People told us that while staff in medical care were kind and caring and did their best to provide care, they were clearly busy. There weren’t always enough staff to meet people’s needs and people had to wait for assistance when they used call bells. People also had to wait for pain relief at times due to low staffing levels.
“While staff understood how to raise concerns and report incidents and were encouraged to do so, many felt that this was used as a punitive measure and leaders didn’t always use this information to encourage learning. We found that not all reportable incidents were submitted such as falls on the acute medical unit, which limited opportunities to prevent avoidable harm to people.
“We have told the trust where it needs to make further improvements and will continue to monitor the service to ensure people stay safe while this happens.”
Jo Segasby, providing leadership support to The QEH as Group Deputy Chief Executive and Group Chief Delivery Officer for the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group, said: “This report contains serious findings and we fully accept them, including the warning notices issued by the Care Quality Commission.
“Reading this report, I know many patients, families and staff will feel disappointed. I do too. There are areas where we should have been doing better, and we fully accept that.
“What is particularly disappointing is that the report identifies areas where improvements have not happened quickly enough or where we have not had sufficient assurance that changes were being embedded and sustained. Patients, staff and our communities rightly expect us not just to identify concerns, but to make sure improvements are making a real difference.
“Alongside the significant improvement programme already under way at The QEH, our focus now is on strengthening oversight, accountability and assurance so that we can identify concerns earlier, act more quickly and sustain improvements over time.
“The report also recognises something that should not be overlooked. Patients consistently described our staff as kind, caring and compassionate, and the caring domain in urgent and emergency care remained rated Good.
“Our staff are committed to delivering high-quality care every day. My responsibility, and that of the senior leadership team at The QEH, is to ensure they are supported by robust systems, strong governance and effective oversight. Where those arrangements have not been strong enough, it is our responsibility to put that right.
“We understand why this report may affect confidence in our services. Our focus now is on addressing the concerns identified by the CQC and delivering the improvements that our patients and communities rightly expect.”
