Urgent improvements needed at York Hospital says CQC

Following an inspection in March, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been served with a warning notice and been told it must make urgent improvements by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) .

CQC carried out an unannounced focused inspection of The York Hospital to follow up on significant safety concerns received about the standard of care patients were receiving.

Following the inspection, CQC issued the trust with a warning notice in response to its ineffective systems for managing patient risk assessments, nutrition and hydration, pressure area care and falls prevention.

The service was not rated at this inspection and its rating has been suspended.

The overall rating for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust remains requires improvement.

Sarah Dronsfield, CQC's head of hospital inspection, said:

“When we inspected The York Hospital, we found that staff treated patients with compassion and kindness but didn’t always respect their privacy and dignity or take account of their individual needs.

“Additionally, the service didn’t have enough nursing staff with the right skills, training and experience to keep patients safe and to provide the right care and treatment. It was disappointing that managers didn’t regularly review the situation and change the staffing arrangements to accommodate this.

“We found staff didn’t always complete and update risk assessments for each patient or minimise risks to them.

“Also, staff didn’t always make sure patients had enough to eat and drink, including those with specialist nutrition and hydration needs. This could put people at serious risk of harm, and we raised this with the trust at the time of inspection.

“Due to our findings, we have served the trust a warning notice so its leaders are clear about what changes must be made to improve patient care and safety. We will continue to monitor the service to ensure people are receiving safe care.”