England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust as Requires Improvement overall following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust was rated as Good following an inspection in 2016. On CQC’s return it was found that improvement was needed and the trust is now rated as Requires Improvement overall.
Inspectors found there had been a deterioration in the level of service at the trust. In three of the five key questions CQC asks – are that trust’s services are effective, responsive and well-led - ratings have changed from Good to Requires Improvement. The rating for whether services are safe remains Requires Improvement and the rating for whether services are caring is still Good.
CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“Our inspectors found a number of improvements were needed when they returned to Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust.
“In 2016 we found that the leadership of the interim chief executive had driven significant improvements at the trust since an inspection in 2014 where the trust’s services were falling short of the standards people should be able to expect.
“Unfortunately, on our return at the end of 2018, the trust had seen turnover in the management team had affected its ability to sustain improvements.
“We had concerns about how safe urgent and emergency services and medical care were and how responsive services were, particularly with regard to how quickly people accessed care and treatment.
“However, we found that the trust was focused on planning for the future in line with its sustainability and transformation plans and we found areas of outstanding practice in children and young people’s services and surgery.
“The trust’s leadership knows what it must do to ensure it improves its services and we will continue to monitor its progress, which will include further inspections.”
The trust has been told it must make a number of improvements, including:
- The trust must ensure system and processes are in place to effectively audit services and ensure patient safety and quality of care.
- Staff must undertake mandatory, safeguarding and mental capacity training meet the trusts compliance targets.
- Patient care records must be accurate, complete and contemporaneous. This includes consistent means of documenting sepsis risk and National Early Warning Scores, and a clear order to records.
- The trust must ensure there are sufficient numbers of nursing staff, on all medical wards to ensure people are safe and receive appropriate care.
- The trust must ensure discharge processes are safe, including that there are appropriate care plans in place and patients have the correct medicines with them before discharge.
- The trust must ensure there are effective systems and processes for learning from incidents and sharing this consistently among staff.
- The trust must ensure staff dispose domestic and clinical waste correctly in surgery, in line with national guidelines and trust infection prevention and control policy.
Inspectors witnessed some areas of outstanding practice across the trust, including:
- The trust was expanding its use of robotics to allow surgeons to perform complex and more minimally invasive procedures.
- Following a trial period, enhanced support workers worked alongside nursing staff to support patients with complex needs across the trust.
- There was innovative use of various techniques, such as sensory equipment and animal handling, for stimulation, distraction and comfort for children with different emotional and physical needs.
- The trust funded staff in the neo natal unit to complete their post registration education (Qualified in Speciality).
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust provides local elective and emergency services to people living in and around the districts of Chelmsford, Maldon and Braintree.
Full reports for the trust have been published on CQC’s website at the following link: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RQ8
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