EMERGENCY services for Solihull patients have been criticised by the official health watchdog with
concerns including safety.
Click the headline or link below to read the rest of this story.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC)
raised concerns about Solihull Hospital Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
A November inspection at Solihull said it “is in effect a minor injuries unit and a medical assessment unit jointly
bearing an A&E sign” following a series of downgradings.
Pointing out doctors are on
site from 8am to 8pm
only, it said: “We do not feel it would be appropriate to rate this service as
an A&E department.”
Its report warned of a “lack
of resources” to run as a medical A&E, for conditions related to disease
and organ function. Trauma injury cases go to Heartlands.
The report said: “Many of the
patients we saw in the unit had been there longer than four hours, and it was
not clear how this was being monitored on a daily basis.
“Doctors we spoke to said it
was not uncommon for patients to wait longer than four hours to be seen and,
although we had no direct evidence that this was unsafe because they would
have regular observations
performed.”
Yet it said the unit – which
sees about 45,000 a year - is “not a responsive
or patient-centred service” and raised concerns about the critical care
department.
Here it said “lack of
training and experience of staff and the types of patients admitted could
potentially become unsafe”.
Most services though were
safe, it said, but warned patients who walk into the department could be at
risk if they need to go to Heartlands.
At Heartlands, in Bordesley
Green, the CQC report said there was “no effective” prioritising system “and the speed of decision
making and treatment was poor”.
It said of its visit “The
hospital struggled with patient flows as the A&E department continued to
see increasing numbers of patients.”
Recruitment is taking place
but “shortages of nursing staff were preventing people from receiving good treatment
and care” it said.
It said: “Some nursing staff
shortages and delay in assessment within A&E, which had an effect on
patients’ safety.” In general, both hospitals were effective, it said.
The CQC also raised concerns
about waiting times. Latest figures – for the week to January 5 – show 91.1 per
cent of patients were seen in four hours at the hospitals, plus Good Hope,
Sutton Coldfield.
The target is 95 per cent and
this means 378 waited longer than four hours.
