Bradford NHS trust safety rated ‘inadequate’

In a report published today, the Care Quality Commission rated safety at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust “inadequate”, while improvements were needed in its effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership. Its care was rated “good”.

Inspectors, who gave the trust an overall rating of “requiring improvement”, said action was needed to tackle a “significant backlog” of follow-up outpatient appointments and ensure the running of appointment bookings was more efficient “to protect patients from the risks of inappropriate or unsafe care and treatment”.

Throughout the inspection, they said patients and visitors reported staff treated them with kindness and respect, with “positive, kind and caring interactions” on wards and between staff and patients.

But they said work was required to ensure there was access to sufficient numbers of skilled and experienced staff, particularly in children’s services, operating theatre recovery areas and maternity care at Bradford Royal Infirmary, and on wards at St Luke’s Hospital.

Officials also raised concerns about infection prevention and control measures including the isolation of patients. They said there had been wide-ranging changes at the trust in recent months including a new chairman and chief executive and a shake-up of other senior management.

Chief inspector of hospitals, Prof Sir Mike Richards, said: “I do have concerns that many of the changes to systems and processes have yet to be embedded in practice and the lack of maturity of these arrangements meant that they were untried and tested with regard to robustness and effectiveness.

“I do commend the trust for the many areas where they have been able to demonstrate good and outstanding practice. The palliative care and elderly care teams have been doing some ground-breaking work.”

He said the age of some buildings was a “major challenge” for staff, in particular at the infirmary,

“They also need to address as a matter of some urgency the backlog of patients waiting for follow-up appointments,” he added.

“While there are some signs that this trust is improving, a number of these improvements are new and need time to become fully embedded – the new executive team still need to engage more fully with staff.”

Trust chief executive Prof Clive Kay said: “One of the important findings that really shines through in this report is that our 5,000 staff and volunteers are judged to be very caring people.

“While we have made rapid and substantial progress in the six months since our inspection, the findings present a realistic picture of what further action we must take to accelerate our journey of improvement.

“There is a commitment from the new leadership team that there will be even further investment in our drive to improve the quality, safety and experience that our patients receive.”

Officials said extra doctors and nurses, the creation of new facilities, and a focus on quality and safety spearheaded a package of improvements including more than £11m a year ploughed into additional staff and better services.