Bournemouth Hospital Bosses Agree Action Plan After Criticism
13 January 2014, 10:51
Bosses at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital say they have agreed 'an extensive action plan' after meeting to discuss a damning report by the Care Quality Commission.
The hospital was criticised by the watchdog last month, after an inspection found patients in wet beds and others not receiving proper care.
The report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found:
'The hospital had a high occupancy rate and there had been ongoing use of escalation beds when a ward or unit was full. This was dangerous and could not meet any patient’s needs.
'The trust did not employ enough staff, even though it was fully aware that nearly all its beds were occupied all the time. We were told that there were 135 nursing and healthcare assistant vacancies at the end of September. While 65 posts had been filled by late October, the benefit to existing staff had not yet materialised, in particular for medical services. Some patients were still not receiving the care they needed in a timely manner, and there was an ongoing high risk of this continuing.
'Patients who had suffered a stroke did not always have the fast access urgent treatment on the specialist unit that they needed.
'Other issues we found were:
-Care planning and evaluation did not always contain all relevant information, and staff on duty did not always know the specific care needs of people.
- Mandatory training for staff was not always delivered on time, or they were not always suitably trained
for the areas in which they might work, for example dementia care and assessing whether a patient is able to swallow.
- Security arrangements in A&E left staff feeling vulnerable.
-We found the trust overall was not ensuring effective leadership and governance across the hospital.
The hospital's Chief Executive apologised but claimed it's still a safe place to be treated.
Chief Executive Tony Spotswood said:
“The Board of Directors met on Friday 10 January and we agreed an extensive action plan to address the compliance actions set out by the Care Quality Commission following the inspection process in October.
"Much of the work to address the issues raised is already in progress and improvements are being made. Our Friends and Family Test scores are improving and we have received many positive comments from our governors, patients and their relatives regarding the changes.
“Moving forward, it is our utmost priority to ensure the issues are put right via these compliance actions, not just for the re-inspection when it comes, but to ensure the high quality standards we have in many areas of the Trust are embedded consistently across the organisation.”
You can read more about how the hospital is responding to the CQC's report, how elderly care wards are performing and what patients and staff think, at www.rbch.nhs.uk/cqc.