Northamptonshire hospital apologises after inspection finds them inadequate

A hospital in North Northamptonshire has apologised after being told it must improve because too many patients are being injured in falls.

Kettering General's medical services had been inspected by The Care Quality Commission inspected in May and has found them to be inadequate.

The inspection found that people were being injured due to a lack of staff knowledge and that the mandatory falls training was not undertaken until months later. 

Inspectors did observe improvements on the Naseby ward where there had been several serious falls incidents. The number of beds had been reduced which meant staff were better able to use the space to keep eyes on people who were at a high risk of falls.

But in cases of specific fall risk issues - the report found that staff did not effectively deal with these:

• Lying and standing blood pressures were not always recorded for all patients 65 years of age or those with a medical condition that would increase the risk of falling.

• Not all patients at risk of falling wore a yellow falls risk wrist band, as required by trust policy with ten out of 18 patients assessed as being high risk not wearing a falls wrist band.

• Bed rails were involved in some of the serious incidents where people had been hurt, and inspectors found they were used unnecessarily in six out of the 18 patients reviewed.

The trust's overall rating is unchanged by this inspection and requires improvement.

The hospital says it has taken a series of immediate actions to address the watchdog's concerns.