ICB sends trust five safety warnings in six weeks

An integrated care board (ICB) has sent multiple warnings to a local trust highlighting ‘serious issues’ with the safety and quality of care provided.

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust had had severe and widely reported issues in its maternity services but the five emails and letters from Kent and Medway ICB, sent across a six-week period in February and March, flagged concerns extending into other parts of the organisation. These included:

Serious incidents had “recurrent themes” and there was a “lack of evidence the trust is learning” from them. A spot audit had revealed more than one in five patients at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Thanet had overdue modified early warning scores, which can show if a patient is deteriorating.

Further concerns about adult safeguarding “have been raised in relation to 18 allegations of abuse against people in positions of trust” despite the provider implementing a review on the issue 18 months earlier.

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Source: HSJ, 22 May 2023