New Cross Hospital appeals to CQC over 'inadequate' rating
New Cross Hospital chiefs have lodged an appeal after inspectors rated the safety of its medical care 'inadequate'.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust 'requires improvement' following visits made almost three months ago.
The trust runs both New Cross and Cannock Chase Hospital, which it took over last November in the wake of the scandal at Stafford Hospital.
But the trust has revealed that it is now appealing over the inspection process after the report found that 75 per cent of services were good or outstanding.
The trust's chief nursing officer Cheryl Etches said: "It has been an extremely disappointing report to read in terms of ratings.
"A lot of people are struggling to understand how that plays out when the ratings have been good for some areas. We can only appeal on the process.
"Our appeal went in last Wednesday. We are waiting to be assigned a case manager which should be done within the next 10 days. We have appealed on five different subject matters including ratings. They have 30 days to deal with it. We may end up with another inspection in 12 months' time.
"We have gone ahead and publicised the overall ratings in line with CQC requirements so that we are still complying with them in this matter."
The report released earlier this month highlighted that nursing staff vacancies were a risk to patient safety. It uncovered night-time nurse shortages at New Cross, no access to free water in the outpatients department, some staffing issues affecting patient safety and care that sickness and staff shortages were affecting morale.
Ms Etches said an action plan was in place and will be added in the coming weeks to also take account of staff feedback that is currently under way. She said department directors were now looking to learn from the inspection exercise.
She said the trust had received 'warming' and a 'strength of support' stakeholders including local councils.
Chief executive David Loughton said many hospitals were under pressure from staff shortages, not just New Cross. He cited Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, that was earlier this month placed into special measures by health regular Monitor after the CQC found some services to be 'inadequate'.
"Someone somewhere has got to do something about these issues at national level. One hospital near here got 15 Filipino nurses, but they cannot get visas to travel. There needs to be a more joined up system at government level. We have had no instruction to increase the numbers going into nursing training," Mr Loughton added.
