One of the biggest NHS trusts in the country has been placed in special measures after inspectors deemed it “inadequate”.
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Jane Ramsey, chair of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and David Wherrett, acting chief exec, today issued a joint statement in which they apologised to patients for a lack of effective systems and processes across the Trust.
“To this extent, we are pleased that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) recognised that the staff were very committed, caring and did their utmost to achieve the best outcomes for patients”.
Equipment in the maternity unit was found to be old, while care guidelines were not always followed.
Only patient care provided by front-line staff was praised, being rated uniformly “Good” in all 10 categories inspected.
He added: “We were concerned that in some services, staff were caring for people in areas unfamiliar to them, meaning patient safety and welfare was placed at risk”.
The CQC investigation found that Epic had also been producing inaccurate discharge information, leading to a risk that patients would not receive appropriate follow-up care.
Many patients were waiting for follow-ups, the CQC found. During the inspection, there was a backlog of 227 ophthalmology and 233 dermatology patients waiting for a call back and a total of 605 across all specialities.
The CQC also found routine operations were frequently cancelled and maternity services regularly closed. We will be working with the CQC, Monitor, our partners and staff to develop further action plans to rapidly address the rest of the concerns and we are confident we will have them in place quickly.
Our Annual Members Meeting is a fantastic opportunity for local people to meet with staff from their local hospitals and learn more about the service improvements that have taken place over the past year.
Today the Care Quality Commission has finally published reports of inspections carried-out at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust in March.
“We will continue to monitor the trust’s performance closely”.
CUH Trust, which has more than 1,000 beds, is already under scrutiny by Monitor over its financial dealings.
The trust is now predicting a £64million deficit this year, with health regulator Monitor saying that that it had an overspend of £1.2million a week.
The spokeswoman said the trust had a “hugely busy” summer which meant the hospital had to open up more areas to care for people, all of which pushed the costs up.
Stuart Tuckwood, a spokesperson for the public sector trade union UNISON, where Mr Zeichner worked from 2002-2015 as a political officer before his election in May, told the BBC: “To be told that the hospital is inadequate… is a slap in the face to our members and the healthcare staff that work there”.
He said he did not think there was “any sane or rational interpretation of the word ‘inadequate”‘ that would describe any aspect of the operations at Addenbrooke’s.
Former chief executive Keith McNeil, who resigned last week, has defended Addenbrooke’s as “phenomenal”.
“We will take rapid action to address concerns and maintain our record of safety and high-quality care”.
The eHospital programme has seen both Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Rosie Hospital undergoing a long-term transformation of how patient data is accessed and used to enhance the quality of patient care under a 10 year-agreement with Epic and HP.
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“The well planned eHospital programme, underpinned by robust risk mitigation was never intended to make up for any shortfall in clinical resource, and the significant savings and efficiency drives that the trust has achieved to-date are surely testament to aligned thinking in the interests of patient safety”.
