'Overworked staff' impacting patient safety at Torbay Hospital

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has raised concerns about Torbay Hospital being understaffed and the impact that has had on patient safety.

It carried out an unannounced focused inspection of medical care services at Torbay Hospital in December, after receiving information of concern about the service. 

Cath Campbell, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: “When we inspected medical care services at Torbay Hospital, we were mindful of the pressures that the COVID-19 pandemic had had on the trust, and aware that staff were working extremely hard during this time. However, we were concerned to find some of the wards didn’t have enough staff to meet the needs of patients, especially those on a dedicated COVID-19 ward, and the trust wasn’t able to provide us with evidence that there were enough staff on the ward to monitor patients to keep them safe.!

“In addition, staff didn’t always complete risk assessments for each patient to remove or minimise risks to people’s safety. Staff also did not always identify patients at risk of deterioration and act quickly to keep them safe."

The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust says it has taken the CQC’s findings very seriously and made immediate improvements, which the CQC have recognised. 

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Source: Torbay Weekly, 4 March 2022