Lincolnshire’s hospitals to remain in special measures

The Care Quality Commission has determined that United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust will remain in special measures for a third year amid concerns about patient care.

Inspectors highlighted ‘significant concerns’ about urgent and emergency care at both Boston and Lincoln hospitals, saying that the trust, which has been in special measures since 2017, has not made enough improvements since its last visit.

Prof Ted Baker, England's chief inspector of hospitals, said that, as well as ‘insufficient improvement’ having been made, he also said that, in some instances, ‘improvements witnessed as part of our inspection in 2018 had not been maintained’.

Among the issues were the emergency departments not having enough permanent nursing staff with the right skills and experience, as well as too many agency staff. There were also examples of poor record-keeping, a significant financial deficit and inadequate children's services in Boston.

Andrew Morgan, chief executive at the trust, said: “We are disappointed that despite all of our best efforts, we have not made the progress we wanted and therefore will not be coming out of special measures. We acknowledge that we have more to do to improve our rating, but we’d like to reassure our patients and public that although many areas of our hospitals were rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ in this latest inspection, we maintain a focus on providing safe, quality care to our patients and our rating for ‘Caring’  was ‘Good’.

“Many of the issues identified are structural- around governance, staffing shortages, estates issues, lack of digital maturity and financial pressures. It is also clear that we need to focus on recruitment, leadership, staff training and competencies, staff engagement and addressing workforce inequalities going forward.

“We also acknowledge particular concerns around our emergency departments and are taking action to ensure that improvements are made as quickly as possible. We also took immediate action to address the CQC’s urgent concerns following their visits. We are determined to take this feedback and make significant improvements across the trust, for the benefit of our staff and patients.”