The Chief Inspector of Hospitals has published an inspection report on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust rating the trust as Inadequate overall.
CQC carried out its inspection of services at The Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospitals between 21 August and 21 September.
Following this inspection, CQC took urgent action to protect the safety and welfare of people using the trust’s urgent and emergency services and maternity services by placing conditions on the trust’s registration. The trust was then placed into special measures on 8 November, in order to give the trust external support to make the significant improvements identified in today’s report.
The trust is rated Inadequate overall, having previously been rated Requires Improvement overall. The trust is rated as Inadequate for whether its services are safe and well-led, Requires Improvement for whether its services are effective and responsive and Good for whether its services are caring.
Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals at the Care Quality Commission, said:
“Our report on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust gives a detailed account of our inspection and our full findings.
“We have kept the trust and NHS Improvement informed of our findings and earlier this month I wrote to the Chief Executive of NHS Improvement to say that I anticipated that I would be making a formal recommendation of special measures upon publication of this inspection report; as I believed there was sufficient evidence that the trust would not be able to make the improvements to the quality of its services without external support. I asked NHS Improvement to put in place all necessary support without delay and the trust has now been placed in to special measures.
“While we found staff to be caring and dedicated, there is clearly much work needed at the trust to ensure care is delivered in a way that ensures people are safe.
“We remain particularly concerned about the emergency department and maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. We have already taken urgent action to protect peopleand we are monitoring the trust extremely closely.
“We will continue to work with NHS Improvement with regard to the trust. This trust must take action to ensure it makes all improvements necessary to give patients the standard of safe care they should be able to expect. We will return to check on progress with those improvements.”
CQC has told Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust it must:
- Ensure sufficient and suitably qualified and trained staff are available to care for and protect people from the risk of harm.
- Keep all environments safe for use.
- Review and improve midwifery staffing levels to meet the needs of women and keep women and babies safe.
- Take account of the report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists review of current practice in maternity services and formulate action plans to improve the service.
- Review the processes around escalating women who are at high risk so that women who present at the midwifery led unit or day assessment unit receive a medical review without delay.
- Review its policy on reduced foetal movements so there is a clear and defined pathway for midwives and sonographers to follow.
- Ensure complaints are addressed within the timescale laid down by the trust’s complaints policy.
- Doctors covering out of hours must have the capability and confidence to review patients at the end of life, including prescribing.
- All records must be safely and securely stored.
- The trust must improve the rates of administering antibiotics within an hour of identifying patients with suspected sepsis.
- Best practice must be followed when preparing, administering and storing medicines.
While CQC identified a number of areas for improvement inspectors also found outstanding practice in the postnatal ward, which had received the exemplar ward diamond status. This meant the ward met high standards in a number of key areas including caring for women and babies, medicine management, leadership, nutrition, hydration, cleanliness, safety and record-keeping.
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While we found staff to be caring and dedicated, there is clearly much work needed at the trust to ensure care is delivered in a way that ensures people are safe.
Professor Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals