Significant safety concerns found at York and Scarborough Hospital Trust

The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals Trust has been told it must make urgent improvements by the Care Quality Commission.

The Trust was served with a warning notice following an unannounced inspection in March which found "significant safety concerns" after the standard of care patients were receiving.

The CQC said there were ineffective systems for managing patient risk assessments, nutrition and hydration, pressure area care and falls prevention.

The Trust already had a "Requires Improvement" rating before the inspection.

Sarah Dronsfield, CQC's head of hospital inspection, said: "When we inspected The York Hospital, we found that staff treated patients with compassion and kindness but didn't always respect their privacy and dignity or take account of their individual needs.

"Additionally, the service didn't have enough nursing staff with the right skills, training and experience to keep patients safe and to provide the right care and treatment. It was disappointing that managers didn't regularly review the situation and change the staffing arrangements to accommodate this.

"We found staff didn't always complete and update risk assessments for each patient or minimise risks to them."

Inspectors said that there were not enough staff on the wards to allow them to take account of patients' individual needs.

Heather McNair, Chief Nurse, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The safety of our patients and wellbeing of our staff remain our absolute priority and we are taking every possible action, and innovating where possible, to mitigate any risk to our patients.

“We absolutely recognise the seriousness of the concerns raised by the CQC and since their visit there have been a number of actions taken, including an immediate inspection of every patient’s care on medical wards, including documentation and risk assessments. 

"We also have daily staffing meetings to help identify gaps and any wards which require additional support.

The Trust added that there was an "unprecedented" volume of patients at the time of the inspection, coupled with high staff absences due to Covid.