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Inspectors have told United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust it must take responsibility and make sure standards are improved, met and maintained following visits to two of its hospitals.

CQC carried out inspections at Pilgrim and Lincoln County Hospitals over a total of seven days in June and July and found that none of the standards assessed were being met at either site.

Recently the trust was placed in to special measures by the NHS Trust Development Authority following Sir Bruce Keogh’s review of hospitals with high mortality rates.

Sir Bruce’s review of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust found a number of concerns prompting CQC to carry out its own unannounced and unscheduled inspection.

CQC’s inspections, reports of which are published today (Thursday, 19 September), highlighted further concerns and found the trust was not meeting any of the national standards inspectors looked at.

Andrea Gordon, CQC regional director, said: “This is not acceptable and it is disappointing that we are again talking about this hospital trust in these terms.

 “Our inspectors found caring and dedicated people working at the hospitals but they were being let down by low staff numbers, a lack of training and systems in place to ensure they could carry out their work effectively. Far worse is the fact this resulted in patients being let down.

“The trust and performance managers, such as the Trust Development Authority (TDA), must make sure long lasting improvements happen so people entering these hospitals receive the standards of care they should be able to expect.”

The inspection team included eight CQC employees, six of whom have specific skills in inspecting health and social care services, and the remaining two with specialist roles to assist the inspection, two experts by experience (people with personal experience of using similar services) as well as a specialist advisor in each of the following areas Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR), staffing, clinical governance and elderly care.

The inspection assessed the national standards relating to respecting and involving people who use services, the care welfare of people who use services, management of medicines, staffing, supporting workers, assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision and records.

Neither at Pilgrim Hospital, in Boston, or Lincoln County Hospital, in Lincoln, were any of these standards being met.

Inspectors found low staffing levels had an impact across the hospital including in the care and treatment of patients, communication between clinical staff, the maintenance of patient records and access to staff training and appraisals.

Staff could not always respond to the needs of patients, not all care needs were assessed or planned on a timely way and there were concerns surrounding the documentation and decision making about whether to resuscitate patients.

It is not the first time CQC has highlighted problems at the trust and the Commission previously carried out an investigation into the service.

While improvements were seen on subsequent inspections, these most recent reports show changes made had not been properly embedded in to the trust’s culture and therefore had not been sustained.

“CQC has a range of enforcement powers but after careful consideration, we concluded further action would not lead to improvement in this case. We think it is important for the trust to focus on delivering its action plan in response to Sir Bruce Keogh’s review, which is published today, and will be monitored by the Trust Development Authority,” Andrea Gordon added.

“We are publishing our report on the day that the Secretary of State for Health is publishing progress reports on the 14 trusts, including United Lincolnshire. We will be looking carefully at the trust’s progress in delivering the improvements sought by Sir Bruce Keogh.”

CQC continues to monitor the trust and this includes reviewing information received from the trust, performance managers and other sources, such as members of the public as well as the undertaking of further unannounced inspections. 

Inspectors will return unannounced to Lincoln County and Pilgrim Hospitals again in the future to check on whether the required improvements have been made.

Ends

For further information please contact Louise Grifferty, regional communications manager, on 07717 422917.

CQC’s press office is also available on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors

The full reports for the inspections carried out at Pilgrim Hospital and Lincoln County Hospital are available on CQC’s website via the following links:

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.