The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told a Lincolnshire hospital it must improve or face further action.
CQC carried out an unannounced inspection at Lincoln County Hospital on 21 November following concerns that had been highlighted to the Commission.
The inspection was carried out across five wards at the hospital, part of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and identified a number of areas where improvement was required on one of these, Clayton Ward.
Inspectors found examples of good practice but what they found on Clayton Ward indicated that people’s needs were not being consistently met.
During the visit to Lincoln County Hospital CQC inspectors identified major concerns with three essential standards of quality and safety.
- The care and welfare of people
- Supporting staff
- Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision
Andrea Gordon, CQC Deputy Director of Operation (regions), said: “During our unannounced inspection, we identified a number of unacceptable failings on one ward in particular.
“Some of these related to the dignity of people, accuracy of records, and the risk this poses, as well as numbers of staff and the support and training they had been given to do their jobs.
“These are issues of real concern and we have demanded that improvements are made."
During their visit, inspectors observed what was happening on the wards and spoke to patients and their relatives.
While they were given positive feedback from a number of people, inspectors were told that one patient was left lying in faeces for half an hour before they were cleaned and changed. This was an example of where a person's dignity was not maintained and respected as it should have been.
Some care plans were found not to accurately reflect patients’ needs. This created a potential risk as staff would not know from the plans how to meet people’s individual needs.
One patient who was admitted two days prior to CQC’s visit did not have a care plan at all, although another newly admitted patient had a comprehensive plan.
The inspection highlighted that some staff were not being properly supported to provide care through their training, supervision and appraisal.
Although there were systems in place to check on whether patients’ needs were being met, these were deemed not to be effective in one ward. This meant that concerns raised by staff were not being escalated to the appropriate managers and action had not been taken to address them.
Records on staffing level checks showed that on one ward there had been insufficient staff available on duty to meet patients’ needs.
Inspectors also noted there had been a number of incidents but that the systems in place to identify and guard against the risk of these happening again were not robust enough.
Andrea Gordon added: "The major concerns we found related to Clayton Ward but it is vital that changes are made so that a consistent service is given to patients across the hospital.
“We have received an action plan from the trust detailing the improvements it intends to make and will be making further unannounced visits to check on their progress with this.
“When we inspect again we will expect the trust to be able to demonstrate it has made rapid and sustainable improvements."
Where improvements are not made CQC has a range of enforcement powers it can use to assist in driving through improvement.
The kind of action CQC can take includes prosecution, closure, or restriction of services.
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For further information please contact Louise Grifferty, regional communications manager, on 07717 422917 or the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.
Notes to editors
The report on what our inspectors found will be published on CQC's website shortly.
The CQC carried out an investigation in to Pilgrim Hospital, another of this trust’s hospitals, in 2011,to look at whether systems and procedures at the trust were good enough to ensure patients are guarded against inappropriate or unsafe care and treatment.
The investigation found the trust had made changes but that it needed to provide further assurance it was doing enough to achieve sustainable improvements.
CQC made a number of recommendations following the investigation and continues to monitor progress in relation to these through unannounced inspections at Pilgrim Hospital.
The most recent of these took place on 9 December 2011 and a full report of our inspectors’ findings will be published in due course.
Find out more
You can read more about our checks on standards at Lincoln County Hospital.