The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found improvements in maternity services and urgent and emergency services at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust following an inspection in July.
CQC carried out the inspections to follow up on the progress of improvements it told them to make at previous inspections. Inspectors visited maternity services at Furness General Hospital, Westmorland General Hospital and Royal Lancaster Infirmary, and urgent and emergency services at Furness General Hospital and Lancaster Royal Infirmary.
Following the inspections, the ratings are as follows:
- Maternity at Furness General Hospital - the overall rating has gone up from requires improvement to good.
- Maternity at Westmorland General Hospital - the overall rating has gone up from inadequate to good.
- Maternity at Royal Lancaster Infirmary - the overall rating has gone up from requires improvement to good.
- Urgent and Emergency services at Furness General Hospital - the overall rating has gone up from requires improvement to good.
- Urgent and Emergency services at Royal Lancaster Infirmary - the overall rating is rated requires improvement again.
Chris Storton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north-west, said:
“At this inspection, we were encouraged to see widespread improvements across maternity care. We saw staff providing exemplary care who went above and beyond to ensure women and their babies were well cared for. We were also pleased to see improvements in the quality of care being provided to people attending A&E services, although some improvements were still needed at Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
“It was great to see that maternity leaders had increased the number of midwives and specialists since we last inspected meaning women and their babies were receiving a better standard of care.
“We saw staff communicating positively with people in A&E at Furness General Hospital, explaining their treatment options to them. Leaders also managed risks in the department well in A&E to ensure people weren’t placed at harm. The highest risk during the inspection was overcrowding in the department when other units were closed but it was impressive to see leaders address this quickly. As a result, people gave overwhelmingly positive feedback about their experiences there and praised the staff that cared for them.
“However, leaders must improve how people are managed when attending A&E at Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Some waiting areas weren’t considered suitable and people sometimes experienced delays being seen by specialists.
“Leaders and staff should feel proud of the changes they’ve made and the positive impact these changes have had on people using services. We’ve shared our findings with leaders so they know where improvements are still needed and we’ll continue to monitor the trust to ensure these improvements are embedded and sustained.”
Inspectors found:
In maternity services:
- Women were given the opportunity to speak to staff at Royal Lancaster Infirmary about their birthing experience, especially if the experience was not what they had wanted or expected.
- Staff at Westmorland General Hospital ensured women only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs if they moved between services.
- Maternity services worked with the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) to contribute to decisions about care and make improvements.
- Staff and leaders actively listened to information about women who are most likely to experience inequality in care outcomes and supported their treatment in response to this.
In urgent and emergency services:
- People attending A&E at Furness General Hospital gave mainly positive feedback and there were several thank you cards on display.
- Furness General Hospital scored above average in the national patient survey for how staff communicated with people and how they were treated with dignity and respect.
- Leaders had made improvements at Royal Lancaster Infirmary for people who’d had a stroke to ensure they got access to treatment quicker.
- Staff didn’t always manage medicines safely and there were understaffing issues in the paediatric part of A&E at Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust report will be published on the website in the coming days.