An NHS Trust given a second-chance by the Care Quality Commission (CGC) has been put back in special measures after it failed to address a number of serious problems.
The CGC first raised concerns about the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) back in 2014, and in 2015 it was first put into special measures due to concerns for patient safety.
The NSFT was given the opportunity to address the failings and it was taken out of special measures in 2015.
However, the NSFT has now been placed into special measures for a second time because it had failed to ensure "unsafe environments were made safe".
The CQC’s critical findings were:
- Concerns that "not all potential ligature risks" had been removed and there were concerns about the level of training in suicide prevention for staff
- The NSFT board had not ensured that there were "sufficient staff to meet patients' needs safely"
- There was "insufficient capacity to manage crisis at night". Alarmingly, Norwich crisis calls were diverted to a mobile after 21:00 and if the staff member was busy it diverted to a voicemail
- A lack of availability of beds means patients did not "always receive the right care at the right time"
- Being placed in “special measures” means a director will be attached to the trust to ensure the improvement plan is carried out.
*The NSFT Chief Executive, Julie Cave, said that the trust accepted the recommendations of the CQC report. “In short, we have not made enough significant improvements over the past year and that has resulted in this retrograde step in our CQC ratings and in our progress. For that we apologise to our staff, to our service users and carers, and to our stakeholders."
A clinical negligence solicitor at Sydney Mitchell, said,
For a Trust to be placed into special measures two times in as many years is unprecedented. Something is clearly going very wrong at the NSFT, but sadly this is indicative of a wider and deeper problem with the NHS more generally. Patients are being put at risk due to insufficient funding, inadequate staffing and lack of critical resources. Something has to change, otherwise it will be patients who will suffer the consequences.
If you are concerned with the medical treatment that you have received and would like to discuss matters, please a member of the PI team on 0808 166 8827.
*Source: BBC news – 13 October 2017
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