Health bosses to be questioned over care at Russells Hall Hospital
Health chiefs are to be quizzed by councillors over standards of care at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley after a government watchdog said it must improve.
Members of Dudley Council’s health and adult social care scrutiny committee will meet next week to discuss a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.
Councillors are being asked to comment and make recommendations on improvements proposed by the trust after the critical inspection was published in July.
Serious concerns were raised by the CQC following visits in January and the watchdog said it must see improvements, “particularly around the safety and leadership of diagnostic imaging and the safety of urgent and emergency care”.
Inspectors added “significant improvements” were needed to boost safety in both emergency care and diagnostic imaging.
Emergency standards were assessed at Russells Hall – the major site of the trust’s three hospitals which also include the Guest Outpatient Centre and Stourbridge’s Corbett Outpatient Centre.
In the report Professor Ted Baker, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said: “The safety of urgent and emergency care fell short of our expectations.
“Inconsistent and poor practice meant that not all patients received sepsis treatment in a timely manner.”
He added: “Not all patients were monitored and observed sufficiently to identify deterioration, and we were not assured that all patients allocated to wait on corridors were safe.”
Inspectors also found Russell Hall’s emergency department “did not always have enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe”.
Overall, they rated effectiveness and caring as good, but said areas of management and responsiveness required improvement.
Councillors will meet on August 28 to look at proposals to improve services for the estimated 450,000 people the trust provides care for.
