The Care Quality Commission has published the inspection report on The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust’s urgent and emergency service at Rotherham General Hospital.
A team of inspectors carried out a focussed unannounced inspection of the urgent and emergency care services at Rotherham General Hospital on 19 to 21 August 2019. The inspection was following up on concerns identified in the service at the trust’s previous inspection in September 2018. Concerns centred around staffing of the paediatric area, incident reporting, safeguarding practices and the service’s leadership.
Inspectors reported a number of encouraging improvements throughout the service. Previously workforce pressures restricted staff in delivering the care they wanted to provide, inspectors found this to have improved at the latest inspection. Staff were following best practice and national guidance to support people achieving better outcomes in their care, they treated people with compassion and kindness, and were providing appropriate emotive support. Multiskilled teams were engaged to ensure people were safely discharged from the service. Leaders had acknowledged the previous inspection findings and acted quickly in response, to ensure people’s safety and improve risk management.
However, inspectors found that further work was needed in the service to bring it in line with expectation. On occasion the time it took people to be seen by a doctor continued to be high and information gathered by inspectors showed specialists were not attending to people in a reasonable timescale, which risked avoidable harm occurring. Combining increased demand on the service and lack of bed availability resulted in patients spending significant time in the waiting area.
Not all policies had been reviewed or updated on time, which meant staff were sometimes supported by potentially outdated guidance when providing care. Further improvements were needed to ensure adult nurse staffing met the requirements of the service and that processes to safeguarded children and young people were well embedded. However, inspectors reported that managers were more visible when compared to the previous inspection and they recognised more time was needed to properly secure changes in the leadership and culture in the service.
Overall the service improved to a rating of Requires Improvement, from Inadequate previously. Of the five key questions asked, safe and well-led went up to Requires Improvement. Caring improved to Good and effective and responsive remained rated Requires Improvement. The Trust’s overall rating of Requires Improvement was unaffected.
A full report of the inspection has been published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/RFRPA/inspection-summary#urgent
For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Mark Humphreys mark.humphreys@cqc.org.uk 01912011675 or call the press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team; www.cqc.org.uk/media/out-media-office. (Please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters).
For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61