Four out of ten hospitals 'unsafe': Damning report exposes catalogue of neglect and inadequate treatment
- A&E and maternity of special concern, said the Care Quality Commission
- 65 out of 162 NHS hospital trusts 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement'
- Staff shortages a major factor as the elderly are neglected and left to fall
- Findings come two years after overhaul triggered by Mid Staffs inquiry
Damning: The CQC said patients are being given the wrong drugs and picking up serious infections
Four in ten hospitals are unsafe, a damning report reveals today.
Patients
are being given the wrong drugs and picking up serious infections while
shortages of staff mean the elderly are neglected and suffering falls,
says the care watchdog.
A&E units and maternity wards are particular causes of concern, according to the Care Quality Commission.
In one shocking case, casualty patients were left for hours on trolleys in a temporary building to await treatment.
‘Far too many hospitals were inadequate on safety,’ declared CQC chief David Behan.
The findings are contained in an annual report into NHS standards which also covers care homes and GP surgeries.
‘The
public is being failed by the numerous hospitals, care homes and GP
practices that are unable to meet the standards that their peers achieve
and exceed,’ warns the report.
The
CQC has inspected 82 out of all 162 NHS hospital trusts. It found 65
were either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ in terms of safety.
This
means four in five of those inspected were unsafe. The watchdog says
this isn’t representative of all hospitals because it inspected those
expected to be failing first.
However,
it still means 41 per cent of all trusts – four in ten – have already
been found inadequate in terms of safety – and the watchdog is only
halfway through its inspections.
The
findings come less than two years after a major overhaul of hospital
standards that followed the Mid Staffordshire scandal, in which hundreds
died due to neglect.
Trusts
were urged to hire extra staff, carry out hourly checks of patients and
take extra measures to prevent mistakes with drugs and in surgery. But
the CQC found that many hospitals were severely short of nurses at
night, meaning frail patients are more likely to fall when they try to
go to the toilet.
Inspectors
also found cases of staff forgetting to give medication or giving it to
the wrong patient after notes became mixed up.
