18.01.19
Bradford hospitals trust fined by CQC after breaching its duty of candour
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS FT (BTH) has been fined by the CQC after failing to apologise to a family in time after a safety incident, breaking its duty of candour.
The health inspectorate issued a fixed penalty notice to the trust because it had failed to comply with the ‘duty of candour’ regulation which requires providers to be open and honest with patients and their families if there is an incident in which they suffer harm.
Bradford hospital trust will now have to pay £1,250 after a ‘notifiable safety incident’ occurred when a baby was admitted to the Bradford Royal Infirmary in July 2016.
There were delays in diagnosing the boy’s condition and the trust missed opportunities to admit him to hospital, according the CQC.
Although a notifiable safety incident was recorded by the trust, the family were not informed and did not receive an apology until October.
Chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC, Ted Baker, commented: “The action that we have taken against Bradford Teaching Hospitals does not relate to the care provided to this baby, but to the fact that the trust was slow to inform the family that there had been delays and missed opportunities in the treatment of their child.
“Patients or their families are entitled to the truth and to an apology as soon as practical after the incident – which didn’t happen in this case.”
In 2014 the Bradford trust was placed under investigation by Monitor to determine where the organisation was in breach of its licence after the CQC raised major concerns over staffing levels following an inspection.
Two years later inspectors found that the trust had made significant improvements since the 2014 investigation but still found staff shortages and several areas which required targeted improvement.
The CQC’s latest inspection in June 2018 saw the trust remain unchanged at a ‘requires improvement’ rating and inspectors told the trust it must make improvements after finding failures in sepsis guidelines, although a new emergency department did address some of the commission’s concerns.
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