Hinchingbrooke hospital will be placed into special measures after a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) revealed a catalogue of serious failings at the privately run hospital, including in its A&E unit, which put patients in danger and delayed their pain relief.
Circle, the private company in charge of Hinchingbrooke, told the stock exchange earlier that the CQC’s report was one of the reasons it waspulling out of running the hospital.
The CQC was scathing about the hospital, rating it as “inadequate” overall, and specifically for patient safety, displaying caring towards patients and leadership.
It is the first time the watchdog has found a hospital trust to be inadequate in how it cares for patients. Its verdict follows an exhaustive five-day inspection last September and a follow-up visit on 2 January, which found that some improvements were still needed.
The report said some children arriving at the A&E department were left “potentially unsafe” at times because of a lack of specially trained paediatric nurses both there and in some operating theatres.
Patients told inspectors that the response of nurses to them ringing a bell for assistance was poor, especially at night. Drinks were found to have been left out of reach of patients, even after inspectors had pointed that out.
Prof Sir Mike Richards, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said: “Our inspection at Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS trust highlighted a number of serious concerns surrounding staffing and risks to patient safety, particularly in the A&E department and medical care. There were substantial and frequent staff shortages in the A&E department.”
Hinchingbrooke’s descent into special measures will mean it will start having its performance monitored to an unprecedented degree by the NHS Trust Development Authority, which oversees non-foundation trust hospitals, and will possibly be twinned with a high-performing hospital elsewhere in England from which it will learn how to improve. Almost certainly the process will involve major changes to the hospital’s leadership, which was strongly censured by the CQC.
Other failings related to the way the trust was run and led, he added. For example, the CQC said “both the Circle management team and the trust board told us that the other was responsible for holding the trust’s executive team to account”.
“Our findings highlight the significant failings at Hinchingbrooke hospital. They are not a judgment on the role of the private sector in the NHS or on franchise arrangement”, Richards said.
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