Trust warned by CQC over staff sleeping on duty

A mental health trust has received a warning from the Care Quality Commission over staff sleeping on duty and other serious concerns.

Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust was sent a “letter of intent”, which warns the CQC is considering taking urgent enforcement action, following an unannounced visit in November, according to a board report last week.

The trust is already subject to a high-profile inquiry into hundreds of patient deaths.

Natalie Hammond, executive nurse, said this would be “a fine tuning of our health roster which will be an early warning system that will determine and flag all staff members that may be at risk of working too much or their hours of working might perform a pattern that means they are at risk more of falling asleep on duty.”

She added: “We’ve done learning lessons and videos that link the importance of being fit and alert for work and how when you’re not, what mitigation and what steps you should undertake and what risk there is to patient safety.”

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Source: HSJ, 1 February 2023