The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recently produced a report into Leicester hospitals and, unfortunately, the findings were not good.
Inspectors from the CQC first carried out an unannounced inspection at Leicester Royal Infirmary’s A&E department in April following concerns over the level of care provided. Following the inspection, their report said that patients were waiting too long to be admitted, and that this had resulted in some deaths which could have been avoided.
In June this year, the inspectors from the CQC returned to conduct a more thorough inspection, focusing on surgery at Glenfield Hospital. During this review, the CQC found that University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust had left 32,000 patients waiting for more than 10 weeks for procedures.
It was also found that 1,686 cardiology patients were waiting for operations at Glenfield Hospital at the time of the inspection, and the list was only increasing.
The report added that staff have been leaving due to ‘burn out’, stress caused by the pandemic, and financial pressures. In particular, Glenfield Hospital did not have enough nursing staff on the wards to meet patient needs, resulting in a reliance on agency and bank staff.
The inspection also found that there was a backlog of maintenance work in every surgery theatre, which could result in safety standards not being met. The inspectors said:
“It was of concern that staff was using out-of-date devices either without checking or knowing they required maintenance.”
Overall, the CQC rated the Trust as requiring improvement, and also highlighted safety, leadership, and the responsiveness of the services as areas of concern.
Chief Executive of Leicester’s Hospitals, Richard Mitchell, said:
“We fully accept the findings in the CQC’s report and welcome the recommendations for improvement.”
Comment
It is clear to see that hospitals are continuing to struggle as the backlogs caused by Covid have had to be cleared, whilst new and ongoing patients still require healthcare. Staffing levels are obviously still a huge issue, and there is little to draw-in new recruits or retain those staff still hanging on. Leicester Hospitals are no doubt facing a lot of work to get back on track and improve its CQC ratings, and it is vital that they follow-through with the promise to take on the recommendations made and work on them as soon as possible.
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Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Danielle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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