NHS hospital trust threatened with urgent action or leadership change
Posted: 29th November 2013
Posted in: Medical Negligence
After Medway NHS Trust was placed under special measures following the Keogh report earlier in the year, the lack of improvement has resulted in the trust being threatened with urgent action or a leadership change if services don’t get better. The hospital trust was put under special measures after major failings were identified across multiple departments.
Despite this, health regulator ‘Monitor’ has recently discovered that the hospital’s problems are much greater than first anticipated. As a result of this, new conditions have been enforced on the trust’s license to ensure that improvements are made immediately. Medway NHS Trust said that they agree that urgent changes have to be made, and said that they are currently addressing many of these major issues.
Inappropriate referrals and delayed discharges
Problems identified by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) included: poor A&E performance, breach of license within midwifery and maternity services, poor communication with patients, inappropriate referrals and delayed discharges.
Paul Streat, Monitor’s regional director, said that an improvement director has been appointed to support improvements within the trust, saying that they needed “a credible clinical strategy for the organisation as a whole.”
Chief executive of Medway NHS, Mark Devlin, said that the top priorities for the new medical director, chief nurse and entire team are to ensure that improvements are being made and that all staff are contributing to the shaping of the new clinical strategy.
He also said that over 60 additional nurses and 20 clinical consultants had been employed, and that the redesigning of the emergency department was well under way.
Medway NHS Trust were alongside 10 other trusts placed under special measures following the Keogh review earlier in the year after worryingly high death rates were recognised across the board.
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