The Care Quality Commission has carried out a focused inspection of Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s urgent and emergency services at Warrington Hospital.
CQC inspectors visited Warrington Hospital unannounced on 19 February 2019, looking specifically at the urgent and emergency services, as part of the winter inspection program. The department was previously inspected in March 2017 as part of a trust wide inspection and rated Good. The latest inspection report is unrated, and the trust’s overall rating of Requires Improvement is unchanged.
While inspectors recognised the pressure the service was under at the time of the inspection, they did find the service had deteriorated since the last inspection and was in need of significant and swift improvement.
Staff from across the service expressed their concern about patient safety due to patients being unable to flow through the hospital effectively, as well as being cared for in inappropriate areas of the hospital. There was also concern that unfilled staff vacancies risked patient safety.
CQC have made their findings clear to the trust, and will return to the service in due course to check whether improvements have been sustained.
Once patients were clinically assessed they received good care and promptly, however, the time it took for some patients to have their care needs assessed was excessive. Additionally, inspectors found the service lacked sufficient available beds and staff to enable patients to be admitted as required. Ambulance crews had to wait with their patients because they could not be transferred to the hospital, and on-call specialist doctors were sometimes slow to respond to patients in need.
Inspectors also saw how admittance issues caused overcrowding in the department and patients were being treated in a corridor. Whilst staff did their best to care for and treat patients as efficiently and sensitively as possible, there was no real way for them to protect patients’ privacy and dignity.
However, staff spoke positively about working in the service and junior doctors said they felt well supported. The leadership team were seen to be energetic and working well together, and had helped to develop a supportive, learning and friendly culture. Some of the concerns that inspectors identified during the inspection were being addressed by the team.
A full report of the inspection will be available on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/RWWWH
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Manager David Fryer david.fryer@cqc.org.uk or Regional Engagement Officer Mark Humphreys mark.humphreys@cqc.org.uk 0191 201 1675 or 07401 853206
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