The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust NHS Trust that it must make significant improvements to medical services at Walsall Manor Hospital.
A focused inspection of the hospital was carried out on 9 March due to concerns raised about the safety and quality of the services, specifically within the medical wards at Walsall Manor Hospital.
Following the inspection, the trust was issued with a warning notice due to concerns found around staffing and governance, and how patients were discharged. The notice has given the trust three months to rectify the areas of concern identified.
As a result of the inspection, the overall rating of medical services at Walsall Manor Hospital changed from requires improvement to inadequate. Medical services were rated inadequate for being safe, responsive and well-led. The overall trust rating remains unchanged as requires improvement.
Fiona Allinson, CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said:
“When inspectors visited medical services at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, it was clear that staff supported one another to deliver patient focused care but it was evident that understaffing was causing a deterioration in the quality of that care.
“All wards we visited identified low staffing as the main risk. On one ward, concerns were raised over the development of a bay for people requiring additional oxygen support which required increased staffing to maintain safe standards. It was concerning that staffing for this ward was low prior to this specialist bay opening.
“In addition, the inconsistent way governance issues were communicated with staff had impacted on the information they received around learning from incidents and complaints. Staff were unable to tell us about any recent learning that had been cascaded down to them.
“Inspectors reported their findings to the trust leadership and asked them to send us a report outlining what action they will take to meet these requirements. We will continue to monitor the service to ensure the necessary improvements are made.”
Following the inspection, the trust must ensure the following improvements are made:
- Systems must be put in place to ensure that staff are suitably qualified, skilled and competent to care for and meet the needs of patients within all areas of the medical services
- Effective risk and governance systems must be embedded that support safe, quality care
- Systems must be put into place to ensure staffing is actively assessed, reviewed and escalated appropriately to prevent exposing patients to the risk of harm
- All staff must competent in the use of the Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) forms.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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