- NHS hospital
Medway Maritime Hospital
Report from 18 March 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Urgent and emergency services
Our view of the service
Medway Maritime Hospital emergency department is based in Gillingham and run by Medway NHS Foundation Trust.
We carried out this unannounced assessment of urgent and emergency services on the 29 and 30 April 2025 to review a Warning Notice issued to the trust in April 2024. Following this assessment, significant improvements had been made, and the Warning Notice had been met.
The service was previously in breach of the legal regulations in relation to dignity and respect and safe care and treatment. Improvements were found at this assessment, but the service remained in breach of these regulations.
We assessed this service using our single assessment framework and looked at all key questions and 24 quality statements.
We visited the following areas as part of this assessment:
- Medway Maritime Hospital Emergency Department
- Medway Maritime Hospital Same Day Emergency Care
We spoke with over 30 members of staff, 50 patients, relatives, and reviewed over 20 records to inform our judgements and rating for the service.
We found that the service did not always provide safe care and treatment, and patients were not always treated with dignity and respect. The emergency department faced challenges in managing patient flow to the wider hospital. As a result, some patients received unsafe care due to ineffective escalation procedures that failed to protect their privacy and dignity.
We rated the service as requires improvement overall.
The service was in breach of the legal regulations relating to dignity and respect and safe care and treatment. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with over 50 patients. Patients and their families or carers were not always positive about their experience in the department. Patients felt their care did not always prioritise privacy and dignity. This was due to the environment, especially for patients treated in temporary escalation areas of the department. Patients were unhappy when they experienced long waits and at times the standard of care they received. There were occasions when their medical and nursing needs were not met. This concerned their family members. However, patients and family members were happy with the staff who provided care and understood they were doing their best in difficult circumstances. They felt staff communicated and listened to them well when they attended to them.