Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust ‘needs improvement’ following latest CQC inspection

I was concerned after reading the latest report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into the standards of services provided by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the UK’s largest educational trusts. Ta. The trust’s overall rating was downgraded from ‘.’ In 2019, it went from “excellent” to “needs improvement.”

The health watchdog will conduct unannounced inspections between June 2023 and September 2023 across six emergency services: surgery, children and young people’s services, medicine at the Freeman Hospital and Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI), and obstetrics. was carried out by the trust. It is an inspection of services and emergency medicine at the RVI and the trust’s patient transport service, known as ‘NECTAR’.

Summary of survey results

The CQC reported that the trust’s service standards, measured in terms of safety, effectiveness and responsiveness, all ‘requires improvement’ and highlighted the following areas of particular concern:

• Some services did not always have enough staff to care for patients and ensure their safety.
• Staff do not consistently assess, monitor, manage and act on risks to patients and do not keep adequate treatment records. Additionally, medicines are not always stored and managed safely.
• Not all staff consistently reported incidents in a standardized manner, and the service did not always define the correct harm level as defined by the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS).
• Care and treatment did not always follow national guidance or evidence-based practices.
• Managers did not always monitor the effectiveness of the service, nor did they always work together for the benefit of patients.
• People do not always have access to services to get the right care quickly when they need it, and waiting times from referral to treatment, admission, treatment and discharge arrangements are not always in line with national standards. It wasn’t.
• Senior staff were not always visible and approachable in their service to patients and staff. Systems are not always used to effectively manage performance or make decisions and improvements, they are not clearly monitoring key risks, and they are not consistently mitigating immediate risks. It wasn’t like that.
• Staff do not always feel respected, valued and supported, and the trust does not have a culture where staff can raise concerns without fear, as staff are not always well managed. did.

The CQC rated the trust as ‘Good’ under ‘Caring’, recognizing that staff treated patients with compassion and kindness and highlighted good practice, which was also a previous ‘Outstanding’ rating. It was downgraded from the 2011 rating.

But perhaps most importantly, the report highlighted poor leadership at trusts, which were rated as ‘inadequate’.

Troublingly, concerns have also been raised about a culture of bullying, with some staff saying bullying by management and senior clinical staff is “routine” and that employees report inappropriate behavior from senior colleagues. They reported feeling discouraged and threatened.

The CQC exercises enforcement powers and imposes conditions on the registration of trusts, requiring trusts to make specific improvements within specified time periods and submit monthly reports to the CQC showing their progress. .

conclusion

This report is concerning and highlights the importance of effective, open and collaborative leadership as a key means of promoting patient safety.

Unfortunately, as a medical malpractice attorney, I have been involved in many instances where patients have suffered harm as a result of inadequate controls and inadequate processes for recognizing and managing risk, often with catastrophic results. encountered frequently. I therefore hope that the Trust will urgently address the report’s findings.

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