13.05.16
Country’s biggest health and social care trust rated ‘requires improvement’
The country’s biggest integrated health and social care trust is so understaffed that shifts are starting with no trained nurse on duty, the CQC has warned.
The CQC issued the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust with a ‘requires improvement’ notice after its most recent inspection found significant problems with staffing and leadership.
The trust, created from the integration of council and NHS care services in 2012, is responsible for adult health and community social care.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said: “Following our visit, our inspectors found that improvements were needed at Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust.
“We were concerned about a number of services the trust provided and we issued a warning notice setting out areas where immediate improvements were needed. We received an action plan from the trust setting out the steps it intended to take regarding the immediate issues we raised.”
The CQC rated the trust as requires improvement for being safe, effective and responsive, after finding key problems, including severe staff shortages in adult community care, meaning that shifts were starting with no trained nurse on duty.
It also found staff to be severely overworked, with low morale and patient visits being cancelled due to high demand.
It also rated the trust leadership as inadequate, saying they had not addressed the staffing concerns and had not developed a credible vision for end of life services.
However, it rated the trust as good for being caring, saying patients were treated with dignity and respect and placed at the heart of services despite the challenges.
Stuart Poynor, chief executive of the trust, said: “The trust has embraced the feedback from the CQC; their findings are a reflection of where we are in our improvement journey.
“The organisation has been in its current form for four years and we have experienced much change in that time.”
Rose Goodwin, director of nursing and quality, said the trust was affected by the national shortage of nurses, but was actively recruiting more staff.
She also said that since the inspection, they now have a policy of bringing in support from other teams if a shift lacks a qualified nurse.
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