Watchdog slams hospital over safety concerns

The Care Quality Commission said bosses at the 600-bed hospital had failed to notify it that a worker was arrested in March following allegations that patients were sexually assaulted on a stroke ward.

There was also an allegation that a patient had been left to lie for long periods in soiled clothing, a year after hospital bosses were forced to apologise to the family of former land girl Clara Stokes over the same issue.

Poor discharge procedures meant one patient was discharged to a care home with surgical clips still in a wound, and another developed a potentially fatal pressure sore after being discharged with a leg brace in place, which care home staff hadn’t been told how to remove.

Another patient was alleged to have been sent home from A&E in the middle of the night in a taxi, wearing nightclothes and without hospital staff contacting family or carer, and could not get into their home.

In another case highlighted, a patient was discharged into a home, found to have renal failure and returned to the hospital’s A&E, only to be discharged to the home again two hours later with a note saying they needed fluids and food. The patient’s condition deteriorated rapidly and they were returned to the hospital, where they died “some hours later” said the report.

The hospital has also been criticised over its ‘inadequate’ staff training on safeguarding patients – which consists of a half-hour presentation.

Calling the hospital’s safeguarding arrangements “confused and fragmented”, the report added: “The failure to follow correct notification pathways has meant that no agency or authority had a full picture of safeguarding concerns at the hospital.”

Concerns were raised, too, about the level of support hospital staff received, with some workers reporting that appraisals had been cancelled or delayed.

A spokesman for the L&D said that, following the report, discharge and transfer plans had been reviewed and strenghtened, the staff appraisals programme had been revised, training had been increased and safeguarding alert reporting procedures had been reviewed.

Chief executive Pauline Philip said: “We immediately addressed the concerns raised by the CQC and have provided them with regular updates of the progress we have made to resolve their concerns.”

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