King’s Lynn trust to remain in special measures

The Care Quality Commission has recommended Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust to remain in special measures following its latest inspection.

The trust, which was placed into special measures last year, is rated as Inadequate overall following the visit from inspectors in March and April this year. That inspection found that insufficient improvements had been made and a number of concerns remained.

The CQC says that Norfolk-based Queen Elizabeth Hospital is now rated as Inadequate for whether the trust’s services are safe, effective and well-led and it is rated as Requires Improvement for whether its services are caring and responsive. As a result of the inspection, CQC also took enforcement action placing urgent conditions on the trust’s registration.

The trust must now make improvements in a number of areas, including: how the board functions; new processes must be in place for leaders, at all levels, to ensure a programme of clinical leadership and management training and development are in place to drive improvement; divisional leadership must ensure it has the capacity to support significant improvements in the safety and quality of care; the trust must review, define and implement a corporate strategy aligned to clear strategic priorities; the trust must improve the culture, ownership and accountability of clinicians, at all levels across the organisation, to empower and effect change; and the trust must ensure that risk assessments are undertaken for all patients presenting in the emergency department, including children, with mental health concerns and/or at risk of deliberate self-harm or suicide, and ensure that action is taken to mitigate the identified level of risk.

Leaders have vowed to turn around The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It remains one of 12 NHS trusts in England in the support regime ‘special measures’.

Caroline Shaw, chief executive of the trust, said: “We welcome the CQC’s feedback and are using this to put in place the right foundations to make the sustainable changes that are necessary to ensure the consistent delivery of safe and quality care that our patients deserve.

“I know how hard our staff are working and how passionate they are about what they do and the care they provide. Our staff told CQC inspectors that as a senior leadership team there is more we must do to better support, value and recognise their contributions; feedback which we are acting on.”

Professor Ted Baker, CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “It was extremely concerning to find little evidence of improvement on our return to the Queen Elizabeth King’s Lynn Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Improvements that needed to be made had not been made and the service fell short of what people should be able to expect.

“During our inspection we found a lack of processes and systems to ensure the effective oversight and governance of services. We found significant concerns and risks to patients within the urgent and emergency service, medicine, end of life care and gynaecology which were raised with the trust immediately. Many of these concerns had previously been identified at our inspection in 2018, yet necessary improvements had not been made.

“Our findings are such that I have recommended that the trust remains in special measures, and continues to receive the support from this, to ensure it improves its services and delivers safe care and treatment. It is vital that the trust board concentrates on what we have told them and does all it can to ensure swift and sustainable improvements are made. We will continue to liaise with NHS Improvement with regard to the trust and our inspectors will return in due course to carry out further inspections.”