3 days Ago
The Care Quality Commission carried out an unannounced inspection in June 2024 following concerns about poor discharges, waiting times complaints about staff and quality of care, and management of care of people with mental health conditions. The inspectors deemed the safe and responsive categories of the inspection as requires improvement, while well-led, effective and caring were rated good. Meanwhile, medical care (including older people's care) was given an overall rating of good, with requires improvement for safe.
Peterborough City Hospital (Image: Peterborough City Hospital) The CQC report states: "We undertook this unannounced assessment following information of concern relating to waiting times, complaints about staff and quality of care, poor discharges, and management of patients with mental health conditions. "Following this assessment the service has remained an overall rating of requires improvement. "We identified that there were concerns about: space to accommodate the potential number of people in certain areas, sepsis screening, checks on emergency equipment, completion of risk assessments including mental health patients, staffing levels in children and young people's services and mandatory training levels.
" The report added: "Patients and any family or carers with them were generally positive about the staff treating them with kindness and dignity and providing effective care and treatment. "On occasions patients had to wait to be treated for a long time after an initial assessment. Most people and family or carers said that communication with them was good despite how busy the department was.
"People generally could access care, treatment and support. People did not experience discrimination or inequality. People with additional needs did not feel disadvantaged.
"The service made reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities and communication difficulties." Keep up to date with the latest news across Peterborough by signing up to our newsletter email alerts here Regarding medical care (including older people's care), the service has an overall rating of good, with requires improvement for safe. The CQC report stated: "We found two breaches of regulations relating to safe care and treatment and staffing.
"The needs of patients admitted to escalation areas and patients cared for in the corridor were not always met. "Staff did not always follow boarding criteria and in-patient boarding was not always in line with policy." The report adds that "oxygen cylinders were not always properly secured and not all patients who received oxygen from a cylinder had individual risk assessments completed for this use.
" It also states that "staffing levels did not always meet planned levels and compliance with training did not always meet the recommended target". Some patients the CQC spoke with told inspectors that "they were not always informed of their planned care and treatment." The report adds: "We heard comments such as 'we get mixed messages regarding which scans have been carried out and whether he needs a drip or not'.
" However, the CQC also states: "Patients knew who to contact if they required support, and follow up arrangements were made prior to discharge. "People were confident about raising concerns and they said staff responded quickly and most patients we spoke with on assessment told us that they had access to meals and drinks when required, and that their nutrition and hydration needs were met. "However, some patients we spoke with, particularly those cared for in in-patient boarded spaces (delivering care in areas not designed for clinical use), told us that they did not have access to meals that were specific to their dietary requirements.
" Jo Bennis, Chief Nurse at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Peterborough City Hospital, said: “I would like to thank our teams in our Urgent and Emergency Care services and Medicine division for their dedication to providing good quality care for our patients in what can often be challenging circumstances. “Their dedication to care and their desire to improve clearly shone through in their discussions with the inspection team. “Since the inspection took place last summer, we have continued to implement a programme to improve the experience of patients.
“We have been able to reduce the number of instances where we needed to provide corridor care and have a dedicated improvement workstream in place to address patient moves, discharge processes and delivering the fundamentals of care. “I am pleased to see a number of key domains inspected by the CQC have either held their ‘good’ rating or been elevated to ‘good’ – which is a testament to the hard work of all colleagues and our journey of improvement. “We know there is more transformation and improvement work to do and it is encouraging to see how our staff are leading these workstreams.
“We are committed to making the changes that will give our patients a better experience.”.
