26.11.14
A&E care at Medway Maritime Hospital still ‘unsafe’
The A&E department at Medway Maritime Hospital is still failing to protect patients from receiving care or treatment that is “inappropriate or unsafe”.
This is according to the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report, which found that the department continued to lack any form of effective clinical leadership and there remained a lack of cohesive working amongst nursing, medical and allied healthcare professionals.
Following the unannounced inspection on 26 August, following up on previous inspections in December 2013 and July 2014, inspectors also highlighted confusion over the movement of patients from A&E to wards in the hospital, which is in special measures.
For instance, it was stated that the process of initially assessing patients in a timely manner remained flawed, with some patients experiencing delays of more than two hours before any effective clinical intervention or treatment was commenced.
As a result of the findings of the inspection, and having taken into consideration the findings from previous inspections, CQC took action to impose additional conditions on the provider’s registration.
These additional conditions include operating an effective system which will ensure that patients attending A&E at Medway Maritime Hospital have an initial assessment of their condition carried out by appropriately qualified clinical staff within 15 minutes of arriving at the department. It will also ensure that sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified clinical staff are employed by the registered provider so as to enable the system to operate effectively.
Professor Edward Baker, CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals in the south, said: “When we inspected the A&E department at Medway Maritime Hospital in August we found that the trust had failed to make the improvements required.
“As a result of the inspection we took action to make sure the trust addressed our immediate safety concerns. Since that inspection, we have been working with Monitor, NHS England and other stakeholders to monitor progress at the trust closely.
“A great deal of effort has been made to drive improvements at the hospital, and we will return in due course with the expectation that significant improvements will have been made.”
CQC highlighted in its report that the performance of the emergency department during Q2 (6 July – 29 September 2014) was markedly worse than that of Q1 (6 April 2014 to 5 July 2014); this was despite there being fewer attendances during Q2.
Data from NHS England indicated that in Q1 25,277 patients attended the emergency department at Medway Maritime Hospital, compared to 24,344 patients in Q2.
Despite this, during Q1, 86% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival – the national target of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival is 95%. During Q2, only 83.7% of patients were admitted, transferred or discharged within the recommended timeframe.
In addition, the number of patients experiencing delays rose from 515 in Q1 to 724 in Q2. A trust spokesman said work was under way to “improve patient flow” and “alleviate congestion in the emergency department”.
She added: “Two new emergency care consultants took post in September and October, there is now a dedicated head of nursing in the department and three new emergency care matrons will all be in post by 2 December.”
(Image: c. http://markreckless.com/)
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