Neighbouring NHS trust brought in to support Russells Hall A&E
Health bosses have brought in a neighbouring hospital trust to help support improvements in its crisis-hit accident and emergency department.
The Dudley Group Foundation NHS Trust has enlisted the help of the Royal Wolverhampton Trust to help support the trust improve sepsis management within nursing and its emergency services.
Bosses at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said they remained ‘extremely concerned’ over care at the A&E department at Russells Hall Hospital last month.
In the CQC’s latest visit, staff at the hospital even told inspectors they would not be happy sending members of their own family to the hospital over fears they could ‘deteriorate or die’.
The department continued to be rated inadequate after an inspection in June, which followed the same rating at the end of last year. It led to the CQC to take enforcement action to drive up standards.
It is now understood staff from New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton have been sent to Russells Hall to help with sepsis management, while some of its emergency physicians are advising the Dudley trust’s emergency department.
Diane Wake, chief executive of the Dudley trust, said: “We recognise the need to make the changes necessary at pace and have liaised with The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust recently rated as ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission to share best practice as well as quality improvement methodology.
“We are pleased Royal Wolverhampton Trust has agreed to work with us to complement the existing support we have for our emergency department.”
A spokesman for the Royal Wolverhampton Trust confirmed it was providing the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust with support in its emergency department.
A number of concerns were raised about A&E care at Russells Hall.
One included a patient who had been sent back to a waiting area where they suffered a cardiac arrest and died. The hospital trust has launched an investigation.
Other concerns regarded a patient who had a wound dressed but it continued to bleed through the patient’s clothes and onto the floor in a waiting area.
The triage, assessment and tracking of patients in the emergency department – including the management of patients with suspected sepsis – was also identified as a problem area.
