downsmail.co.uk
CQC under fire for report
THE CQC report has been labelled “unfair”. Critics are being led by Cllr Dan
Daley, a KCC and Maidstone coun- cillor who is a member of Kent CCC health scrutiny committee, and Dennis Fowle, chairman of the campaign group MASH. Cllr Daley says it is dangerous
for this unelected and unaccount- able body “to inflict untold damage to morale and undermine other- wise valiant efforts to keep services running with staff shortages, budget restraints and other outside influences”. He slammed the CQC for publishing “without checking veracity”. The hospital trust is taking action
over several criticisms and has no- tified the CQC of 19 of its actions. But it is disputing the accuracy of many more criticisms and is un- happy theCQCdid not react to this information before publishing its report. An example is a statement of “babies being born in A&E” and an implication the current mater- nity and children’s services at the hospital are failing. Research shows this happened just once, when a pregnantwoman visitedA&E with another problem. Shewent into un- expected labour and a midwife from the birthing unitwas called to A&E for a successful delivery.
Hospital report | News
Trust defends care aer probe findings
MAIDSTONE Hospital has hit back at a damning report that claims it is failing to meet some basic national standards of care. The Care Quality Commission
(CQC) made an unannounced visit in February to look at two key areas: the care of patients undergoing sur- gical procedures and the provision of care for children. While all the people inspectors
spoke towere positive about the care they had received before and after surgery, somewere not happy about the number of delays and cancella- tions they had experienced. In some instances, patients were
asked to give their consent for sur- gery while already on the trolley ready for theatre. This meant that they might not
have had sufficient time or informa- tion to make an informed choice, ac- cording to inspectors. Other findings: • Patients did not always receive care from qualified staff. • Arrangementswere not in place for patients to receive on-going care from their consultant. • Children receiving care did not
always have access to staff trained in paediatric medicine. • The paediatric resuscitation team did not routinely contain a paedia- trician out of hours. The team identified a number of concerns – including the manage- ment of risks to patients’health,wel- fare and safety. Professor Edward Baker,deputy chief inspector of hos- pitals for the south, said: “We’ve identified some serious issues at this hospital around surgical services.” But Dr Paul Sigston, medical di-
rector for the trust, said some of the report’s findings were based on in- correct assumptions and defended the hospital’s safety record. He said staffing levels complied
with national guidelines: “Our hos- pitals are very safe. We have good mortality rates, positive patient feed- back, high-quality outcomes and ex- cellent infection control.” He said the trust had launched a
review of paediatric care inA&Eand an assessment of paediatric nursing levels. The trust is also examining procedures for patients admitted on the day of surgery, to ensure they re- ceive privacy and dignity and have
sufficient time to discuss concerns. Dr Sigston said: “We welcome
many areas of this latest review that identify good clinical practice, posi- tive patient comments and opportu- nities which we are quickly addressing to improve patient care. “We are also clarifying some in- correct assumptions within the re- port.” The trust has reviewed its surgical services and is said to be happy with the standard of these. Dennis Fowle, chairman of cam- paigning group MASH, said: "This report is a surprise. There have been no public signals of many of these problems. The trust disputes many aspects of the CQC report - and the quality of the report is in question. “Problems will arise in any organ-
isation as complex as a multi-pur- pose hospital but we would have been aware of any serious wide- spread under-performance. Since the awful days of the C-Diff infection deaths we have seen many major improvements in Maidstone Hospi- tal but we are still uncomfortable about the impact of reconfiguration of some services from Maidstone to TunbridgeWells.”
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