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Substandard Medical Care At London Hospital


November 30, 2009
Topic: In The News

London, England - The Care Quality Commission, the independent NHS inspectorate published findings which said it had "lost confidence" in the management of the trust, after repeated requests to address the problems had failed to deliver results. It is the second time in six months that a foundation trust, a flagship NHS medical institution granted control of its own finances on the strength of its performance, has been found to be delivering sub-standard care suspected of causing hundreds of deaths. Analysis of the hospital board of directors' meeting minutes suggests it spent little time discussing and challenging information in relation to poor quality of care for patients.

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, a London, England hospital was cited for poor standards of care at an accident and emergency unit in one of that country's flagship hospitals. According to an NHS investigation, those poor standards may have contributed to unnecessary deaths of over 400 patients. The investigation also found dirty equipment and an absence of leadership contributed to a death rate almost 40 per cent above the national average. Among the specific problems cited in the report were:

  • The unit had blood stains on the floor,
  • dirty curtains,
  • stinking mattresses, some stained with blood
  • soiled equipment,
  • nurses who failed to monitor, feed and give drugs to patients correctly; and
  • a rate of pressure sores almost twice the national average. Instead of the national four-hour maximum waiting time for A&E, the trust was operating a 10-hour waiting time,
  • inadequate arrangements for children,
  • breaches of infection control, and
  • poor leadership.

In March, the Healthcare Commission - the CQC's predecessor - exposed a similar scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where monitoring of mortality rates showed between 400 and 1,200 more deaths had occurred than the national average in the three years to 2007-08.


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