Staff shortages at Weston General put patients and staff at risk during pandemic
Inspectors praised the staff's compassion but criticised hospital bosses
Nursing shortages at Weston General Hospital have put patients and staff at risk during the pandemic.
That's what inspectors have concluded after rating standards at the hospital disappointing.
North Somerset Council is now calling on hospital leaders to make rapid progress amid concerns they are “no longer addressing the fundamental challenges”.
It comes after the hospital was forced to close for three weeks for a deep clean last May after five patients tested positive for Covid-19 in a non-Covid ward.
An investigation later found 31 patients died after catching the virus at the hospital.
In response the hospital reduced the number of beds to improve social distancing, worked to minimise staff movements and introduced rapid testing.
The hospital trust says 60 registered nurses are due to join the hospital over the next six months and it is actively working to recruit more doctors.
Care Quality Commission (CQC) head of hospital inspections Amanda Williams said: “We found that staff were caring and focused on the needs of patients, but it was clear that the leadership team needs to make a number of sustainable improvements in order to ensure that the service operates effectively.
“We have now told the trust that it must send us an action plan outlining what steps they are going to take to address our concerns and make improvements. We will continue to monitor the service to ensure that these are implemented and fully embedded.”
Changes during the pandemic meant each nurse was seeing eight patients in the daytime, up from six normally, and overnight the ratio increased by 50 per cent from one nurse for every eight patients to one nurse for every 12.
The CQC said the reduced staffing levels had impacted on patient care, increased the number of safety incidents, and risked delays in recognising when patients were deteriorating.
It said hospital leaders did not always demonstrate that they had the capacity to run the service and there was a perception the senior team was not present enough on the wards to understand the issues that staff were facing. Some staff reported feeling “abandoned”.
The CQC did praise the staff's compassion though, as well as their use of PPE, record-keeping and understanding of how to protect patients from abuse and act on any concerns.
Deirdre Fowler, chief nurse at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Trust, said: “We welcome this CQC report and fully accept that there are areas in medical care services at Weston General Hospital which we need to improve.
“Issues highlighted in the report reflect challenges, particularly around nurse and medical staffing, that the hospital has faced for many years.
“We were actively seeking to address these issues in planning for our merger just over 12 months ago, which happened at the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nevertheless, we have already made significant progress with work to address these challenges either completed or underway.”
The trust has hired a new cohort of nurses who will start over the next six months and is actively working to recruit more doctors. Temporary staff have been block-booked in the meantime to provide continuity of care.
Ms Fowler thanked staff for their dedication during the pandemic and added: “We are committed to making the necessary improvements and our focus will remain on providing safe and high quality care to our patients.”
Cllr Mike Bell, North Somerset Council’s executive member for health and adult social care, said the hospital had faced significant challenges for many years and improvements were not being made quickly enough.
He said: “As we begin to come out of the worst of the pandemic and NHS services start the work to get back to normal – and tackle a backlog of treatments that have built up – it is time that we saw more rapid progress from the UHBW Trust in addressing historic weaknesses.
“The Healthy Weston programme, which set out plans to reimagine Weston General Hospital, needs to get back on track, as it has not progressed as quickly as we need and there are legitimate concerns it is no longer addressing the fundamental challenges.
“I expect to see an action plan from the trust to tackle these issues and look to the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to provide the funding and support needed for it to be implemented.”