QMC’s accident and emergency department ‘requires improvement’, according a health regulator which has raised concerns about overcrowding.
The Care Quality Commission inspected the department during an unannounced visit on December 7, 8 and 11 and revealed its findings today (February 23).
The inspection was triggered after the hospital was unable to meet the four-hour waiting time target for patients attending the department in summer 2016.
The report highlights that overcrowding “all too often impacts on the experience of patients”, with staff working in a department that designed to see an average of 350 patients a day now consistently seeing 550 daily.
In November, the deputy chief executive and medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), the trust which runs the QMC, Dr Stephen Fowlie, said that they ‘did not have an answer’ as to why the department’s performance dipped.
In June, July and August last year, the hospital’s A&E department was more than 20 per cent below the Government’s 95 per cent benchmark of all patients being treated or discharged within four hours.
The report found that the department is effective, caring and well-led, but requires improvement in terms of safety and responsiveness, giving it an overall rating of ‘requires improvement’.
Between November 2015 and October 2016, more than 130,000 adult patients attended the adult emergency department, which was a four per cent increase on the previous 12 month period.
Chief operating officer at the trust, Caroline Shaw said: “The CQC made some helpful observations that have further informed where we need to make improvements.
“We have used these findings and concerns to accelerate improvements.
“This includes enhancing our streaming service so that more patients with less serious injuries and illnesses are treated by primary care clinicians working on-site.
“Emergency nurse practitioners now work at the front door and stream the most unwell patients as a priority.
“We have introduced named nurses to ensure timely observations of patients waiting for beds and treatments in the main ED [Emergency Department].”
The trust’s overall commission inspection rating remains ‘good’.
Dr Fowlie, along with current chief executive Peter Homa and trust chairman Louise Scull have all announced they will leave their positions later this year.
