Hereford Hospital speaks out after receiving CQC inspection report

The Care Quality Commission gave the department an overall ‘requires improvement’ rating due to patient safety concerns, but found staff to be very caring.

CQC inspectors made three unannounced visits to the emergency department from December 5th to 7th, followed by a further day of inspections on December 20th.

Read more: Inspectors uncover numerous problems at Hereford A&E during unannounced inspection

Managing director speaks

Wye Valley NHS Trust managing director Jane Ives said inspectors had identified a number of issues that the trust was aware of and had already addressed.

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“Their return visit includes improved governance, improved child-specific training for staff, improvements to children’s areas and increased numbers of clinical staff, including the introduction of nurses and medical assistants for supervision. We have seen progress in many areas.”Patients are in the waiting room 24 hours a day. ”

delay in discharge

Ms Ives added that the limited capacity of the department and the increasing number of patients coming to the hospital were causing overcrowding in the department. This issue was affected more widely by patients in the trust’s acute and community beds who were medically fit to be discharged but were unable to go home for a variety of reasons.

Overcrowding in the wards delays the transfer of patients to the wards, further exacerbating the problem.

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Prior to the inspection, the trust had developed a new dashboard, which has since been put in place to give staff a clear overview of patients’ status in their care journey and to manage patient flow within the department. It helped me.

The Trust is also keen to create a culture where ‘virtual wards’ are normalised, meaning the Trust can care for patients in their own homes. These, combined with medical, surgical and frailty same-day emergency areas, treat patients on the same day they are admitted and then discharge them, helping to reduce overcrowding by eliminating the need for patients to spend the night on the ward. .

Rating: “Unfortunate”

“It’s clear we’re not where we want to be, and the ‘requires improvement’ rating is disappointing, especially for our hard-working staff,” Ives said.

“We have a team of dedicated and professional staff who make a positive difference in the lives of hundreds of people every day.

“While we have previously adjusted the physical layout of our department, its size has limited what we can do. Despite this, we have been able to provide safe patient care under extraordinary pressure. We are doing everything we can to ensure that.

“This will include monitoring patient flow across the hospital and working closely with health and care partners across Herefordshire to reduce the time it takes for medically healthy patients to wait for support at home and be discharged from hospital. It involves working together.

“We have considered the CQC report in detail and look forward to welcoming inspectors back to demonstrate the improvements we are making.”