HOSPITAL bosses have been told to make immediate improvements to staffing levels following an urgent unannounced inspection at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB).
The inspection was carried out at Good Hope Hospital by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following concerns raised by people and their families around the care and treatment they received.
Inspectors were also aware of a number of serious incidents and safeguarding concerns, information about which had been provided by the trust.
They also carried out an unannounced inspection of the medical assessment unit in medical care and the children and young people’s services at Heartlands Hospital.
This was due to receiving information of concern about the safety and quality of services.
The overall rating for medical care has remained rated as requires improvement.
In medical care, the ratings for being safe and well-led remained rated as requires improvement.
As it was a focused inspection this service was not rated overall and also remains rated as requires improvement.
Children and young people’s services was rated as requires improvement for being safe and rated good for being well-led.
The overall rating for UHB remains as requires improvement.
Charlotte Rudge, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said: “We weren’t assured leaders were appropriately managing priorities and issues, or reducing risks to keep people safe in medical care at Good Hope Hospital, particularly around staffing levels, which must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
“Additionally, across all the services we visited, there wasn’t enough nursing staff to keep people safe and to provide the right care and treatment. Although, managers regularly reviewed staffing levels and skill mix, they weren’t always able to adjust staffing levels to meet the needs of people on the wards. This impacted on staff morale, who were working incredibly hard but felt they couldn’t always provide the best care to people because of this.
“Due to our findings, we have served the trust a warning notice primarily regarding staffing at medical care at Good Hope Hospital, so that they are clear about what changes must be made to improve people’s care and safety at pace. We will continue to monitor the service and return to check on the progress.”
Jonathan Brotherton, chief executive at UHB said: “Importantly, the inspectors noted that our teams are working extremely hard under pressure and we are pleased that it was recognised that our teams treat our patients with kindness and compassion. This is something that I would also like to echo.
“Our staffing levels, like much of the NHS, are challenged and we are continually working to address this. We have a strong programme of work to support values-led recruitment, with a clear commitment to bring more brilliant people into our organisation, to continue to provide excellent care.
“We fully accept the CQC’s recommendations, which we are already working through, alongside those in the patient safety review.”
