West Yorkshire hospital trust deemed ‘inadequate’ in terms of safety

Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission has raised serious concerns over shortages of nursing staff at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and the trust has been rated ‘inadequate’ in terms of safety.

The trust also received criticism over concerns about poor infection control and uncleanliness, and was given an overall rating of “requires improvement”.

The trust says it is making “healthy progress” and pointed out that its services were highlighted by the CQC as “caring”. It did acknowledge, however, that improvements were still needed with respect to responsiveness, effectiveness and at being well-led.

The CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals Sir Mike Richards, praised the trust into how it tackled a backlog of overdue outpatient appointments, but did highlight a need for improvement.

He said “There is still work for the trust to do to ensure that people using its services consistently receive good quality care and treatment.”

The report by the CQC was a follow-up to inspections in July 2014, during which warnings were issued over safeguarding and management of medicines. It found that although the trust had improved, it was having recruitment problems. It cited an example when a patient was considered to need one-to-one care, but did not receive it and fell into a situation of “avoidable harm”.

Chair of the trust, Jules Preston MBE, said “The story of this report is one of continued progress and an encouraging cultural shift. Of course we would like to see the trust performing to the very highest standards in all that we do but set against financial constraints and increasing demand we have made demonstrable achievements. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk ), Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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