CQC orders ‘significant improvements’ at trust criticised over deaths

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has ordered ‘significant improvements’ from a mental health trust which has been criticised over the deaths of vulnerable patients.

The watchdog has warned Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust (TEWV FT) it has “serious concerns” about risk management processes at its inpatient wards following inspections of three of its hospitals in January. It follows a string of severe problems in child and adolescent services run by the trust. 

In a formal letter and a separate warning notice to TEWV FT, the CQC ordered the trust to carry out “significant improvements” to the safety of adult acute wards, and psychiatric intensive care, after a visit to Roseberry Park, West Park and Cross Lane hospitals on the week of 18 January.

Sources have told HSJ the trust’s leadership is working towards a May deadline to make sufficient improvements or it could potentially risk further enforcement action. However, neither the trust nor the CQC have confirmed this.

Families and campaigners — including Labour MP Andy McDonald, who represents Middlesbrough — have called for a public inquiry into alleged “systematic failures” at the trust following the deaths of around 14 patients under the trust’s care within two years.

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Source: HSJ, 12 March 2021