This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Largest NHS trust deemed ‘inadequate’
Bart’s Health NHS Trust was placed in special measures in March following findings that showed that Whips Cross, part of Barts in Leytonstone, East London, was found to hold a culture of bullying and low morale among staff.
Fresh concerns have now been raised at the Royal London Hospital and Newham University Hospital, as a further CQC inspection has deemed that patient safety was not given sufficient priority, staff were discouraged from raising their concerns amid a culture of blame.
The inspection added that staffing was significantly below recommended levels and the hospitals were so full that patients were not always cared for on appropriate wards. Certain patients experienced delays of more than 18 weeks from referral to treatment and some patients had their surgery cancelled on several occasions due to a lack of beds.
The CQC has identified 65 areas where the trust must make improvements.
Chief inspector of hospitals Sir Mike Richards said: “It is clear that the leadership issues we found at Whipps Cross were replicated at the other hospitals.
"It is three years since the merger which formed the trust – but there is still a lack of engagement with the staff, low morale, high levels of stress, even confusion among the workforce about who is in charge. Across the trust there is too little attention paid to safety, with failures in incident reporting and auditing, and in dealing with or learning from complaints.
"It is all the more of a concern with waiting times which were so long, or that operations were being cancelled.”
Steve Ryan, the chief medical officer at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: "We are very sorry for the failings identified by the CQC in some of our services at Newham and the Royal London hospitals.
"All our hospitals will be part of the trust's improvement plan in response to special measures, ensuring a consistent approach to the provision and delivery of high quality care. We will work with each of our hospitals with the same level of urgency and commitment."
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