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Trust that banned corridor care ‘reluctantly’ brings it back

An acute trust has announced the ‘reluctant’ return of ‘corridor care’ – having previously eradicated the unsafe practice – due to extreme ambulance handover delays and other emergency pressures.

Last year, University Hospitals North Midlands Trust chief executive Tracy Bullock said the trust had been “resisting” placing patients in corridors as it “brought significant patient safety and staff wellbeing issues”. This was despite the trust having large numbers of handover delays, being singled out for criticism by the ambulance service, and ‘corridor care’ being commonplace in many other acute hospitals amid severe bed pressures. 

The trust had successfully eliminated the practice several years earlier, because of these issues.

However, at its board meeting today, the trust confirmed the practice was formally introduced at its Royal Stoke site on the day of the ambulance staff strike (21 December) because it was “holding more ambulances than we deem acceptable”.

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Source: HSJ, 4 January 2023

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Trust tells clinicians ‘we’ll support you’ over safety risks caused by covid pressures

A trust has written to its registered workforce to reassure them of management support when delivering care in ‘extremely challenging circumstances’.

Derbyshire Community Health Services Trust sent out a “statement of support for professionally registered colleagues”, in which it thanked them for their “continued efforts”, and explained how they would support staff from a “professional and regulatory perspective”, when delivering services that require “a high level of clinical knowledge and autonomous decision-making”.

This week has seen NHS staff absences hit new highs – over 100,000 – and the military brought in to support care in London hospitals, in combination with very high community covid transmission rates and very busy acute trusts. 

The DCHST email, signed by executive director of nursing Michelle Bateman, executive medical director Ben Pearson and interim director of Allied Health Professionals Trish Bailey, said: “When services are at this high level of escalation it can mean that we are not always able to deliver care in the way we would like and that can challenge our professional values.”

Helen Hughes, chief executive of charity Patient Safety Learning, said Derbyshire Community Healthcare’s message needed to be echoed by every trust in the country.

“Without sufficient staffing resources, difficult decisions are required to prioritise care,” Ms Hughes said. “In some cases, delays in treatment as a result of these decisions could lead to avoidable harm.”

She stressed it was “imperative” that future investigations into safety incidents “properly reflect the systemic nature of reasons for error or harm, not simply blaming staff for failures to provide safe care”.

“Health professionals’ codes mean that they are not allowed to work outside their sphere of competence. But what if staff are being tacitly encouraged or required to work in an unsafe system? Staff need to be able to feel secure in raising any concerns they have, being listened to and being supported,” Ms Hughes added.

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Source: HSJ, 10 January 2022

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Trust stands down service which achieved ‘marked improvement’ in A&E handover delays

An acute trust has had to stand down a new service which led to a ‘marked improvement’ in ambulance handover times, due to a lack of permanent funding to support it.

In recent months, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust has deployed additional staff to receive and care for patients arriving by ambulance, meaning ambulance crews could be released more quickly.

A report to the trust board last month said of the scheme: “Data shows a marked improvement in ambulance release times when deployed.”

However, it would cost £1m per year to fully implement the service and the report said commissioners had confirmed there is “no external funding to support this cost”.

There have been mounting concerns in recent months over the handover delays experienced by paramedics when taking patients to hospital, which have severely affected their response times for new incidents.

In a statement, the trust said it was discussing with system partners how the service, which was introduced on a “short-term basis”, could be supported in future. It was delivered by independent ambulance and healthcare provider CIPHER Medical and used at peak times such as bank holiday weekends.

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Source: HSJ, 6 July 2022

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Trust spent £680k in failed attempt to fight whistleblower

A trust spent £460,000 on legal fees trying to fight a patient safety whistleblowing case that it lost, it can be revealed.

An employment tribunal judge rejected the idea that a consultant nephrologist had done anything to bring about her dismissal from Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust.

Jasna Macanovic was subjected to what the tribunal earlier this year called “a campaign of harassment”, after she warned colleagues that a procedure they were using was harming patients.

After relationships broke down in the Wessex Kidney Unit, she was referred to a disciplinary panel at which two board members – the former nursing director and the current medical director – offered her a good reference if she would resign. She refused and was dismissed in March 2018. The judge noted the offer was clear evidence that the disciplinary process was a foregone conclusion.

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Source: HSJ, 8 March 2023

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Trust spends £3m on B&B rooms for patients stuck in hospital

A mental health trust has spent millions this year on places in “bed and breakfast” accommodation in order to discharge inpatients, HSJ has learned.

South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust, which serves four London boroughs, confirmed to HSJ it had spent £3.1m since April for a range of basic bed and breakfast places, and spaces with a specialist housing association, to ease its bed shortage pressures.

The trust told HSJ clinicians were often reluctant to discharge patients to street homelessness, and that people with mental health problems can be more challenging to find accommodation for.

The trust’s chief executive officer David Bradley told HSJ system leaders had been asked to think “innovatively” about how to mitigate discharge problems. B&Bs are generally a cheaper and more appropriate alternative to a £500 a night mental health hospital bed for people who don’t need acute treatment and have no housing, he said.

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Source: HSJ, 24 January 2023

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Trust served with CQC warning notice over ‘culture’ and governance concerns

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has been served with a section 29a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission requiring it to ensure a ‘more positive culture’.

A CQC spokeswoman confirmed: “The trust was issued with a warning notice requiring it to take action to improve corporate and clinical governance and oversight of risk, and to ensure a more positive, open and supportive culture across the organisation. We will report on the full findings from the inspection as soon as we are able to.”

Although it is still not clear why the warning was issued, the trust is currently engaged in concerns over their accident and emergency department and maternity services. 

“We accept the CQC’s comments and work is already underway to learn from the findings and make improvements so that the organisation is led as effectively as possible and we continue to provide world class care for our patients.” Nottingham University Hospitals Trust acting chief executive and chief finance officer Rupert Egginton has said. 

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Source: HSJ, 18 August 2021

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Trust sent domestic abuse victim’s address to ex-partner, says regulator

A trust has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for exposing a domestic abuse victim to risk by disclosing their address to an ex-partner.

University Hospitals Dorset Foundation Trust is one of only seven organisations in the UK – and the only NHS organisation – to have received a reprimand since July 2022 for a data breach involving a victim of domestic abuse.

According to new details released by the ICO, University Hospitals Dorset received a reprimand in April this year over a procedure it had in place that, when sending correspondence by letter, would include the full addresses of all recipients of that letter without their consent to do so.

In the case that was referred to the ICO, the subject of the data breach had their full address revealed to their ex-partner despite previous allegations of abuse, which has created a “risk of unwanted contact which will remain”.

The ICO concluded that, while the subject did not request their address be withheld, it would not be a reasonable expectation that personal information would be shared without prior consent.

The report raised concerns that UHD did not have a clear policy in place for managing situations where there are parental disputes and that no formal training was provided to administrative staff for dealing with such circumstances.

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Source: HSJ, 2 October 2023

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Trust reviewing harm to 175 patients after referrals breakdown

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals Foundation Trust, has apologised after nearly 1,000 patients faced delays due to a breakdown of referral systems. It was found 175 of these patients were considered urgent cases by their GPs and are now being reviewed for clinical harm. 

When the error was discovered, the patients were added to the referral tacker by 9 July, however until that point, they had not been on any patient waiting list, nor were they visible to either operational management or clinical teams.

Trust chief executive Suzanne Rankin said in a statement: “We are very sorry for any inconvenience these delays may have caused patients and we contacted all concerned and issued appointments where necessary.”

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Source: HSJ, 19 August 2021

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Trust reviewing bed capacity after three patient deaths

A coroner has warned a trust in the West Midlands for the third time about bed shortages, after three patient deaths which he believes are linked.

In his report on the death in July of Philip Malone, area coroner for Birmingham and Solihull James Bennett told Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust that its psychiatric bed capacity “remains inadequate”.

Mr Malone – who was diagnosed with treatment-resistant schizophrenia in the 1980s and adult autism in May this year – died by suicide while awaiting an inpatient psychiatric bed at BSMHFT after a deterioration in his symptoms of anxiety, thought disorder, and hallucinations.

Clinicians decided on 28 June that Mr Malone should be detained under the Mental Health Act, but as no inpatient psychiatric bed was available, he remained in the supported accommodation. Mr Malone died on 3 July.

In a public report warning of the risks which may cause future deaths, issued last week, Mr Bennett said he had issued two previous “prevention of future death” reports which focused on a “chronic lack” of mental health resources in Birmingham and Solihull.

Mr Bennett said: “The issue of adequately funding psychiatric beds is local and national. Locally, BSMHFT requires its commissioners to provide the necessary funding.

“Whilst some action may have been taken it is insufficient to resolve the problem. It follows there is a genuine risk of future deaths directly connected to a shortage of psychiatric bed spaces in Birmingham and Solihull unless further action is taken.”

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Source: HSJ, 5 November 2023

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Trust reviewing 31,000 patients ‘lost’ by IT system

A trust has had to re-examine the cases of more than 31,000 patients after they were automatically and wrongly discharged from its care because they did not have another appointment within the next six months.

Dartford and Gravesham Trust in Kent has revealed that soaring waiting times post-covid meant patients who needed follow-up appointments were not offered them within six months, which before covid was a very unusual occurrence.

When they passed six months, they were dropped off waiting lists altogether, due to a feature in the trust’s patient administration system designed to ensure outdated pathways are closed. It is a common feature in many such systems, HSJ was told.  

The trust has now “validated” more than 31,000 patients who have been in contact with it since 1 September 2021. So far, it said, it had not found evidence of harm, although some people have been recalled for clinical review or investigation, and a small number are still to be seen.

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Source: HSJ, 22 August 2023

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Trust reviewing 100,000 patients put ‘on hold’

A trust is reviewing more than 100,000 patients on its outpatient lists, after concerns emerged that some had ‘been lost whilst on hold’ for follow-up appointments.

A report from Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust, leaked to HSJ, found 116,575 patient records without a scheduled follow-up after an outpatient consultation, with more than half of those left inappropriately without action, some dating back a decade.

The review was triggered after staff spotted cases in which patients had been “lost whilst on hold”, the report said.

The trust this week told HSJ that, since the initial discovery in the summer of last year, it had been validating the lists and reduced the number of outstanding records to 47,778. It aims to complete the reviews in the next two months.

It told HSJ it had undertaken a harm review and found no “systemic harm”.

Concerns have been raised over several years about the extent of overdue and unreviewed patients on follow-up lists, and the potential for them to deteriorate and come to harm. There are no national figures monitoring the patients, many of whom have long-term health needs.

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Source: HSJ, 15 December 2023

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Trust reports two ‘never events’ in area already under review for errors

A teaching trust has reported six ‘never events’ in less than two months, including incidents in a specialty already under review for errors.

The incidents occurred at University Hospitals Birmingham between 26 July and 10 September, including two wrong-side lesion biopsies in dermatology, two incorrect blood transfusions, one injection to the incorrect eye, and one misplaced nasogastric tube.

The two incorrect blood transfusions involved the same patient at Heartlands Hospital and were reported after a biomedical scientist carried out a retrospective investigation into the case. On both occasions, the patient was transfused with incorrect red blood cells.

It brings the total number of blood transfusion events reported at UHB to seven since 2020-21. The issue is already subject to a review by the Royal College of Physicians after Mike Bewick identified concerns in his review of patient safety at the trust.

It comes after clinicians working within the haematology specialty raised multiple concerns over patient safety in 2021 and intervention from the General Medical Council over concerns around junior doctors.

John Atherton, chair of UHB’s clinical quality and safety committee, told the board a preliminary review into never events had identified that “maybe we weren’t addressing these [incidents] seriously enough”.

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Source: HSJ, 1 December 2023

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Trust reports sharp spike in covid patients

An acute hospital in Greater Manchester is now experiencing a spike in coronavirus patients, following weeks of high infection rates in the community. 

Figures released by Bolton Foundation Trust today said it currently has 26 suspected covid patients, including three in critical care. These are the highest numbers reported by the trust since the end of May.For most of July, August and early September, the trust had fewer than five covid patients on its wards at any one time.

The borough of Bolton has reported high infection weeks for several weeks, with the latest figures suggesting 200 infections per 100,000 people, the highest rate in the country.

Dr Francis Andrews, the trust’s medical director, said: “We are seeing more people being admitted with confirmed or suspected covid-19 as a result of the very high rate of infections in Bolton.

“This is not a shift we want to see. The situation at the hospital is under control and we were well prepared for this. However, the rate continuing to rise is of concern, and we continue to urge the people of Bolton to consider others when making decisions that could jeopardise their safety."

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Source: HSJ, 15 September 2020

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Trust receives record fine for maternity care failure

An acute trust has been fined a record sum by the Care Quality Commission for failing to provide safe maternity care, which resulted in the death of a baby after 23 minutes.

Nottingham University Hospitals must pay a fine of £800,000 within two years. It is only the second time the regulator has brought a case against a NHS maternity service, and the highest fine ever given for failings of this nature.

The trust pleaded guilty earlier this week to two charges of failing to provide safe care and treatment to Sarah Andrews and her baby daughter Wynter Andrews at Queen’s Medical Centre in 2019, a short time after her birth by Caesarean section. This guilty plea saw the fine reduced from £1.2m. 

An inquest in 2020 found the death was a “clear and obvious case of neglect”. It was also found there was “an unsafe culture prevailing within maternity services”, including a “failure to listen and respond to staff safety concerns”.

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Source: HSJ, 27 January 2023

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Trust orders 'civility training' for senior leaders

An ambulance service rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission has set out a wide-ranging improvement plan, including ‘civility training’ for senior leaders and ensuring board members hear a mix of ‘positive and negative’ stories from patients and staff.

South Central Ambulance Service has been moved into the equivalent of “special measures” by NHS England, in the wake of the Care Quality Commission report in August which criticised “extreme positivity” at the highest levels of the organisation.

This means 3 out of only 10 dedicated ambulance service trusts in England are now in segment four of NHSE’s system oversight framework, the successor to special measures. The other ambulance services in segment four are East of England and South East Coast.

In a damning inspection report published in August, the care watchdog said that leaders were “out of touch” and staff had faced a “dismissive attitude” when they tried to raise concerns.

One staff member told inspectors: “When sexual harassment is reported it seems to be brushed under the carpet and the person is given a second chance. Because of this, a lot of staff feel unsafe, unsupported and vulnerable when coming to work.”

An improvement plan summary published at the start of last month included a large number of priorites and actions, including to “ensure [a] mix of positive and negative patient/staff stories are presented to [trust] board meetings” – an apparent attempt to address CQC concerns that its positive outlook could feel “dismissive of the reality to frontline staff”.

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Source: HSJ, 11 October 2022

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Trust ordered to make second £400k-plus payment to a whistleblower

A trust which last year was ordered to pay a whistleblowing nurse nearly £500,000 must now give a surgeon £430,000 to compensate him for the racial discrimination and harassment he faced after raising patient safety concerns.

Tribunal judges previously upheld complaints made by Manuf Kassem against North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust and have published a remedy judgment this week setting out the levels of damages the NHS organisation must pay.

The judgment comes just over a year after a former senior nurse at the trust was awarded £472,600 for unfair dismissal after she warned high workloads had led to a patient’s death.

Mr Kassem raised 25 concerns regarding patients’ care during a grievance meeting in August 2017. He alleged patients had “suffered complications, negligence, delayed treatment and avoidable deaths”.

A trust review concluded appropriate processes were followed in the 25 cases. However, the tribunal ruled Mr Kassem was subjected to detriment after making the protected disclosure.

According to the judgment, Mr Kassem was subsequently removed from the on-call emergency rota and his identity as a whistleblower was revealed by clinical director Anil Agarwal.

In September 2018, he was the subject of a disciplinary investigation following several allegations against him made by colleagues and others, which concerned “unsafe working practices,” “excessive working hours,” and “potential fraudulent activity.”

The investigation lasted 17 months and none of the allegations against Mr Kassem were upheld or progressed to a disciplinary hearing. 

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Source: HSJ, 15 March 2024

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Trust must pay £200k to whistleblower it subjected to ‘campaign of harassment’

A trust that sacked a whistleblower who had warned them about potential patient harm from a new procedure has been told to pay her more than £200,000.

Jasna Macanovic won her case against Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust last year after the employment tribunal found board members had broken employment rules, including by telling her she would get a good reference if she agreed to quietly resign.

Earlier this month, an employment tribunal judgment to establish the compensation she was owed said the trust had subjected Dr Macanovic to “a campaign of harassment” and rejected Portsmouth’s claim she had contributed to her own dismissal.

The consultant nephrologist, who had been at the trust for 17 years, raised concerns about a technique called “buttonholing” – carried out to make kidney dialysis more convenient and less painful – that she claimed had caused harm to patients.

After the procedures continued, the dispute escalated, culminating with Dr Macanovic being dismissed in March 2018.

The employment tribunal panel said Dr Macanovic had raised her concerns about buttonholing properly, adding: “She was not alone in her concerns. The consultant body were fairly evenly divided.

“She, however, went further than others, and where she believed that risks were being downplayed she did not hesitate to describe this as a cover-up or an act of dishonesty. Most people would not use that language, and it did cause very serious offence, but it had a specific meaning. It was not a general slur.”

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Source: HSJ, 23 January 2023

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Trust moves away from ‘disturbing’ agency doctor model

A major acute trust says it plans to move away from its significant use of agency doctors from overseas, who have been reported to be working on terms and conditions far below their NHS-employed counterparts.

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust has a contract with the NES Healthcare agency to supply 47 “resident medical officers (RMO)” across its three main sites to cover trauma and orthopaedics, medical and surgical rotas.

HSJ has been told of concerns that RMO's are reporting substantial overworking, and poor terms and conditions, although some of these claims are disputed by NES.

East Kent chief medical officer Rebecca Martin has told HSJ: “The well-being of all our colleagues is one of our top priorities and we are working with the agency about how they cover the rota safely".

“We are committed to providing a safe workplace environment, where RMOs feel comfortable communicating their feedback and we review working patterns to ensure adequate rest periods between shifts. We are actively working to use substantive staff to fill vacancies, and have already been able to offer some of those positions to current RMOs.”

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Source: HSJ, 22 November 2022

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Trust loses whistleblowing case over ‘pioneering’ procedure

A senior medic has won a whistleblowing case after judges ruled she was dismissed after raising concerns about a new procedure her department was using.

An employment tribunal found consultant nephrologist Jasna Macanovic was fired from Portsmouth Hospitals University Trust in March 2018 after telling bosses a dialysis technique called “buttonholing”, which had been “championed” there, was potentially dangerous.

The trust’s case was that the way she had gone about raising concerns had made for an untenable working environment in the Wessex Kidney Centre.

The process saw a Care Quality Commission complaint, an independent investigation and multiple referrals to the General Medical Council.

Employment Judge Fowell said: “The plain fact is that after over twenty years of excellent service in the NHS, Dr Macanovic was dismissed from her post shortly after raising a series of protected disclosures about this one issue. It is no answer to a claim of whistleblowing to say that feelings ran so high that working relationships broke down completely, and so the whistleblower had to be dismissed.”

Dr Macanovic resigned from the regional renal transplant team in July 2016 when she discovered two incidents had occurred that “had not been reported by either surgeon” and felt that one of the surgeons had misled the medical director over the issue, the tribunal heard.

In an email sent after the resignation meeting, Dr Macanovic said the practice was considered inappropriate by the vast majority of experts in the field and that no other renal unit in England was using it. 

The case exposes some worrying governance, both within the trust and between it and the Care Quality Commission, with which the issues were raised in 2016.

When the CQC asked the trust for more information the unit’s clinical director responded that in his view that the deaths and infections were not due to the buttonholing.

The CQC made no further enquiries and wrote back saying “they were satisfied that there were no safety concerns and that appropriate governance had been followed”.

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Source: HSJ, 24 March 2022

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Trust leadership rated ‘inadequate’ as CQC accuses staff of ‘ignoring’ problems

An acute trust’s leadership has been downgraded to ‘inadequate’ after some staff ignored concerns raised directly by CQC inspectors, while others said bullying was ‘rife’.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found multiple reports of staff raising concerns at York and Scarborough Foundation Trust, but that staff felt they were “ignored”, dismissed or “swept under the carpet”.

The trust’s leadership has been rated as “inadequate”, down from “requires improvement”, although its overall rating remains “requires improvement”.

The CQC said “poor leadership was having an impact across all of the services” and there were occasions “where leaders displayed defensiveness or appeared to tolerate poor behaviours from staff.”

The trust said it had been under “sustained pressure” but had already begun to make improvements, including a new information system in maternity services and a review of nursing establishment numbers.

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Source: HSJ, 30 June 2023

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Trust leadership accused of lack of ‘oversight’ hits out at CQC ‘algorithm’

Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust has received a Care Quality Commission warning notice about the medical care provided by its three hospitals. 

It has been told to make urgent improvements after inspectors found a deterioration in quality across its Broomfield, Basildon and Southend hospitals. 

The overall ratings for Broomfield and Basildon hospitals have dropped to “inadequate” as a result.

The CQC carried out a focused inspection in January and February that was prompted by concerns over the safety and quality of medical care and older people’s services, including over people’s nutrition and hydration.

Hazel Roberts, CQC deputy director in the east of England, said inspectors “found a leadership team who didn’t have complete oversight of the issues they’re facing”. 

Among the concerns raised by the CQC’s report were the safety of the premises and equipment, a lack of nursing and support staff, staff not always respecting people’s dignity and privacy, and risk assessments not always being completed and updated.

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Source: HSJ, 16 June 2023

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Trust leaders raise alarm over ‘mad’ approach to scrutiny of maternity services

The management of fragile maternity services is being hamstrung by a lack of clear standards and direction from government and regulators, trust chairs and chief executives have told HSJ.

Kathy Thomson, the retiring chief executive of Liverpool Women’s Foundation Trust, told HSJ that a major overhaul of regulation and oversight of maternity care was needed.

She warned that trust leaders were confused about what was expected of their stewardship of maternity services. Much of the increased scrutiny of the sector was coming from people with little knowledge and experience of maternity care, and maternity was beset by too many initiatives which “somebody thinks are a nice thing to do”.

Ms Thomson’s comments were echoed by a wide range of other NHS leaders (see ’damaging confidence’ below). 

Ms Thomson told HSJ: “How clear are we nationally about the real ask of maternity services? Are we going to say it’s the ten NHS Resolution (NHSR) safety standards, which are really tough to achieve and which we agonise over? Or is it the CQC standards, because they will often take a different view around very similar issues?

“We’ve had that this year after we’ve been assessed as compliant by NHSR, but then had to re-provide evidence after we’ve been criticised by the CQC for something… and then NHSR have written back to say we’re still fully compliant.

“So, should you put your time and energy into the NHSR standards, or do you spend the time on the more subjective drivers? Because we can’t keep doing all of it and having different parts of the NHS saying this is what you need to do or expecting something different.”

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Source: HSJ, 30 November 2023

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Trust leaders must admit ‘entrenched’ bullying culture or leave, says review author

The leaders of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) must acknowledge and seek to tackle the organisation’s pervasive bullying culture, and those who cannot may need to leave, the lead author of its patient safety review has warned.

In an interview with HSJ, Mike Bewick said humility is required to address major cultural issues identified through conversations he had with senior medics and former employees.

Professor Bewick’s overall view was that UHB was a “safe” place to receive care, but his team had been “disturbed” by consistent reporting of a bullying culture. Professor Bewick wrote in his report that even during his six-week review, initial goodwill from the trust had “dissipated”, adding his team has seen an organisation that is “culturally very reluctant to accept criticism”.

Speaking to HSJ, he acknowledged there were people within UHB who do not accept cultural problems, adding: “I would hope they see the right thing to do is to accept [they] didn’t get everything right, to do a bit of mea culpa, have some humility, and move on. Because I don’t think there’s necessarily a place for people who can’t move on.”

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Source: HSJ, 28 March 2023

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Trust launches investigation after staff member’s death

East of England Ambulance Service Trust has launched an ‘independent investigation into the circumstances’ surrounding the death of a staff member, its chief executive told a board meeting today.

Nick Lee, 46, from Ovington in west Norfolk, died on 3 December. The cause of death is yet to be officially established. He was a leading operations manager for west Norfolk, and hospital ambulance liaison officer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn Foundation Trust and had worked for the ambulance trust for nearly 20 years.

This is not the first time the trust, which has faced significant cultural problems in recent years, has been required to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of members of their workforce.

The trust launched an investigation into the “underlying factors associated with” the sudden deaths of three of its employees in November 2019, HSJ exclusively revealed in January 2020.

A whistleblower alleged in 2019 that staff at the ambulance provider were at risk of suicide because of its “completely toxic culture”. A month after the allegations were reported in October, three young staff members died suddenly in 11 days.

The deaths happened while the trust was transitioning to a new staff welfare provider. The staff who died were ambulance dispatcher Luke Wright, aged 24, and paramedics Christopher Gill, from Welwyn Garden City, and Richard Grimes, from Luton.

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Source: HSJ, 13 January 2022

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Trust insists ‘our data is correct’ despite waiting list ‘grip’ concerns

An external review of waiting list management at a large acute trust has found several serious problems – including ‘pop-up’ patients and thousands of cancelled appointments each week – but concluded they were no worse than would be found at ‘most NHS trusts’.

The review appears to have been triggered after University Hospitals of the North Midlands declared unexpected increases in the number of 78-week and 104-week waiters earlier this year, while the government and NHS England have been intensively performance managing these measures.

The independent report by independent consultant Wendy Baines states: “The review found no evidence of deliberate irregularities in the management of waiting times.

“Although as the case for most NHS trusts, the capacity to misrepresent the ‘true’ volume of waiters at a certain point in time is significant.

“Managing this risk by minimising the capacity for errors through training, the right pathway administration systems and tools, and the ability to monitor data quality through a defined set of process assurance measures is key. Whilst UHNM possesses these components, they are not necessarily working in cohesion to provide the assurance and oversight needed to manage patient waiting times.”

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Source: HSJ, 13 June 2023

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