27.03.14
‘Poor management’ at Northampton General – CQC
Improvements are needed across several departments at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust (NGH), despite having some areas of good practice, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has stated.
The CQC’s inspection team found areas of good practice, which included that staff were caring and compassionate; the trust was very clean; and the maternity unit offered the choice of home births and had an adequate numbers of midwives on hand at all times.
However, there were also a number of areas that require improvements. For example, NGH had no effective system to identify, assess and manage the risks to the health and welfare of patients who moved wards at night.
Also, there were concerns regarding staff development. Information provided by the hospital showed that less than a third of staff had an up to date performance development plan (PDR) in place in January 2014.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, the chief inspector of hospitals for CQC, said: “While some services were delivered effectively at the trust, the issues at the A&E department, poor management, staff training, and equipment maintenance must be improved.”
CQC has told the Northampton General Hospitals NHS Trust that it must take action to improve in the following areas:
- Review and act on how children are treated in the A&E department, as dedicated staff and facilities were limited;
- Ensure medical equipment is adequately tested and maintained; and
- Strengthen governance to ensure it functions consistently at all levels.
It must also improve the service provided to patients who access the hospital as an emergency and address the “significant issue” with bed availability at the trust due to delays in appropriate discharge.
CQC spent three days at NGH, including Northampton General Hospital, Danetre Hospital, Corby Community Hospital and Isebrook Hospital in January. The inspection team included doctors, nurses, hospital managers, trained members of the public, CQC inspectors and analysts. The full reports are available, here.
Dr Sonia Swart, chief executive at NGH, said: “I am proud to say the inspectors found our staff to be caring, that the hospital was clean and that infection control was good. The CQC’s report highlights issues we knew we faced and were already working to address.
“Where there are problems we have recognised them. We know we have the capability to turn this round – I still think this is fundamentally a good hospital and is doing well to cope with the pressures that we have.”
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