Our investigation into United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has revealed that improvements have been made, particularly to strengthen frontline management and leadership, but further progress is still required.
The investigation focused on the areas of concern we raised about Pilgrim Hospital in February and June 2011.
Although the hospital has now made positive changes relating to leadership and the way it manages risk, it still needs to significantly improve patient experience and staff training.
Key findings
The results of our investigation show:
- complaints were made owing to poor care and clinical errors.
- patient experience was not adequately monitored.
- dependency on locum staff resulted in cost implications.
- NHS East Midlands Strategic Health Authority (SHA) and NHS Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) failed to identify risks.
- cultural issues throughout the trust strongly hampered improvements.
We have made 21 recommendations that the trust must deliver. We will monitor the trust's progress through unannounced inspections.
About the investigation
We announced the investigation on 16 June 2011 and conducted the work at Pilgrim Hospital throughout July.
As part of the investigation we interviewed staff from the trust, the PCT and the SHA, analysed external reviews, held focus groups and reviewed data from inspections and documents.
Find out more about the investigation and our key findings in the report below.
Read the reports
Read the reports from our checks on standards at Pilgrim Hospital.