CQC report rates Scunthorpe Hospital 'Inadequate'
A report out today from the Care Quality Commission has ranked Scunthorpe Hospital 'inadequate'.
A report out today from the Care Quality Commission has ranked Scunthorpe Hospital 'inadequate'
The CQC repoer ranked Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust Overall as requiring improvement - with Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby rated 'Requires Improvement' and Goole Hospital as 'Good'.
CQC inspected the trust between from 13 to 16 October 2015 and performed an unannounced inspection on 6 November 2015 and the 5 January 2016. Inspection teams had particular concerns with outpatients’ services at Scunthorpe General Hospital and Diana Princess of Wales hospital.
There was evidence of patients coming to harm within the outpatient services because of poor management of the follow up appointment system.
In a statement CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards said: “Eighteen months ago, I could see Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust was making real progress - and I was able to recommend that the trust should come out of special measures. My inspectors have found a positive change in some services, notably within critical care at Diana Princess of Wales hospital. Services at Goole Hospital are Good.
However we found that the services in A&E at Scunthorpe, outpatients and surgical services had either not improved or had deteriorated since our last inspection. We were assured by the quality of the governance arrangements the trust had in place. However, we were significantly concerned that these governance arrangements were either, not widely understood, applied or embedded to ensure the delivery of high quality care.
I am particularly concerned by the backlog of patients waiting for outpatient follow up and the high levels of clinic cancellations, leaving some patients being cancelled time after time, without the involvement of doctors or nurses in reviewing their needs. Inevitably patients will suffer in those circumstances.
However, our findings from this inspection highlight some specific areas at the Trust where improvements have not been maintained. Where hospitals are providing care that is inadequate or requires improvement, I expect to see a sharp focus on improvement, but improvement that must be sustained.
We will be returning later in the year when we will need to be assured that the trust has made significant progress.”
However the report did say people in community services were treated with kindness, dignity, respect and compassion while they received care.
Inspectors observed interactions between staff and patients and saw staff found ways of making the experience of care as easy as possible for people. Relatives could record aspects of care in a diary in critical care, for example and staff told us this enabled them to review relatives’ experience of care and learn from it.
You can read the full report for yourself here