CQC lifts registration condition on Mid Essex NHS Services Trust

13 July 2010

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) today (Tuesday) said Mid Essex Services NHS Trust had made the necessary improvements to cleanliness and infection control and will now lift the condition it had imposed on the trust's registration.

CQC imposed the condition on 1 April, when it introduced a tough new registration system for NHS trusts. Mid Essex was one of 22 trusts registered with conditions to improve aspects of quality and safety.

The Commission had collected evidence from the hospital during an inspection on 12 February, which had shown that members of staff were not aware of policies to prevent and control infections and some areas were not adequately clean.

It required the trust to take urgent action to ensure:

• that its locations are clean and safe for patients, workers and others by operating an effective system to assess the risk, prevention, detection and control of the spread of healthcare associated infection.

CQC set a deadline of 16 April for the trust to provide evidence that improvements were in place.

To check whether the necessary improvements had been made, CQC made an unannounced site visit on 12 May, inspecting five wards as well as other areas of the trust.

CQC found that cleanliness and infection control had improved. It reported that:

• through observations of ward areas and staff interviews, no evidence was found that the trust has breached the regulation to protect patients, workers and others from the risks of acquiring a healthcare-associated infection.
• staff were able to outline their responsibilities and processes to be followed for effective cleaning, prevention and management of potential needle and scalpel injuries.

However CQC did see some areas for improvement, although the concerns were minor and did not amount to a breech:

"With regard to the patient environment, there were areas that were dusty and were not as clean as they could have been, however these were minor.

"there were some areas where the decontamination of moving and medical equipment, pillows and mattresses and disposable items needed to be better logged and records weren't as up to date as they could have been."

Frances Carey, Regional Director in the East, says, "We arrived at the hospital unannounced, so we could see the wards as patients do. We noted significant improvements in cleanliness and infection control since our last inspection in February.

"Patients, visitors and staff can now experience a cleaner environment and importantly, are better protected from healthcare-associated infections.

"We did identify a few areas where cleanliness and decontamination wasn't as good as it could be, but these were minor concerns that did not impact directly on the safety of care. The trust confirmed that it addressed these concerns immediately.

"We have now lifted the condition on the trust's registration and we will continue to monitor the trust to ensure that standards are maintained."

Ends

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Notes to editors