England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust as Requires Improvement following inspections by the Care Quality Commission.
A team of inspectors visited urgent and emergency care, medical care, maternity, outpatients and diagnostic imaging services between November 2017 and January 2018. CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question: Is the trust well led?
Inspectors rated the trust as Requires Improvement overall. It was rated Good for being effective and caring and Requires Improvement for being safe, responsive and well-led.
Following the inspection, CQC served a warning notice as inspectors found evidence to suggest the quality of health care in relation to management of insulin for diabetic patients required significant improvement.
Some people were not able to access services across the trust for assessment, diagnosis or treatment when they needed to. There were long waiting times, delays or cancellations and action to address this had not been effective.
Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said:
“Although some improvements had been noted since our previous inspection, there were still many service areas where the rating remained the same."
“We identified key risks in some core service which local leaders were not aware of. Governance structures and systems were not always operating effectively in some core services. There had been a lack of oversight in some areas, including the management of patients receiving insulin."
“Nurse and medical staffing remained a concern in some services. There was over-reliance on bank and agency staff and despite escalation measures, a number of shifts remained unfilled whereby some of the wards worked below planned figures."
“However, inspectors also observed many areas where good and outstanding practice was being carried out. Staff cared for patients with compassion. Feedback from patients confirmed that staff treated them with kindness and provided emotional support to minimise their distress."
“We were impressed with maternity services at the Royal Infirmary, General Hospital and St Mary’s Birth Centre, and in particular the level of care offered to women who used St Mary’s Birth Centre where specialist midwives tailored care around individual needs. A dedicated home birth team was created in September 2017 with the aim of increasing the home birth rate across the trust."
“The urgent and emergency care department had established one of the first dedicated Emergency Department Sepsis Teams in the UK. The sepsis team were clearly visible throughout our inspection and were available 24 hours a day. Since the launch of this team, the number of patients recognised at possible risk of sepsis had doubled from 50 to 100 per week. Treatment of high risk patients with antibiotics within one hour of arrival had also significantly improved."
“The trust leadership knows what it needs to do to bring about improvement in the areas identified and our inspectors will return at a later date to check on what progress has been made.”
Full details of the ratings, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published on our website.
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