Weston General Hospital has this week been rated as ‘inadequate’ by an independent watchdog following a recent inspection.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced on Thursday (November 4th) it had given the hospital the rating.
The CQC has rated University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), which runs Weston Hospital, as ‘good’ overall, however it says that some improvements are still needed.
Dr Nigel Acheson, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals, says: “We were disappointed to find a lack of awareness amongst the leadership team regarding medical care at Western General Hospital. There was also a lack of partnership working between the Bristol main site and Weston General Hospital.”
“It was also concerning that the team was not on top of some major concerns, including the supervision of junior doctors at Weston General Hospital which had triggered quality intervention visits from Health Education England and the General Medical Council.”
“The trust cannot do this alone and support from the local healthcare community, including the local integrated care system, clinical commissioning group and NHS England and NHS Improvement is essential for the trust to succeed.”
“After the inspection we fed back our findings and concerns to the leadership team. We are aware that since then they have been working to put immediate and significant improvements in place and we will return to check on their progress and ensure that these are fully embedded.”
Inspectors found that at Weston General Hospital there were concerns that the clinical leadership was not effective and there were not enough staff to meet the needs of patients.
This, in turn, raised concerns that patients were not receiving care and treatment which met their needs. Inspectors were later informed the trust had taken immediate steps to address these concerns.
There were unresolved concerns about the support and supervision of a group of trainee doctors based at Weston General Hospital. In both February 2021 and April 2021, Health Education England made the decision to relocate 10 foundation year one trainee doctor posts in medicine out of Weston General Hospital.
This action was supported by the General Medical Council. They were moved to other areas within the trust.
Staff said they felt little effort had been made to foster good working relationships between staff on the Weston Hospital and the other Bristol hospital sites. This included supporting the medical care service at the hospital.
However, there had been collaboration and good outcomes in respect of COVID-19 vaccinations for patients and staff.
At Weston Hospital, management processes were not effective to allow leaders to develop the service or manage the issues the service faced. Leaders in Weston General Hospital did not demonstrate the capacity to run the service.
However, inspectors also found the outpatients service at Weston General had enough staff to care for patients and keep people safe and staff treated patients with compassion and kindness while respecting their privacy and dignity.
The trust had maintained a safe service during the pandemic. Staff had contributed to decision-making and changes to routines, which helped to avoid additional pressures arising from the pandemic to ensure high-quality care was delivered.
The coronavirus pandemic added to workload pressures. This had led to some delays in complaints investigation and response times at the hospital.
Responding to the rating, North Somerset Council’s deputy leader and executive member for health, Cllr Mike Bell, says: “I am disappointed by the results of the latest CQC inspection of UHBW. Weston General Hospital staff continue to deliver good quality care to the local community and have done an amazing job supporting local residents during the Covid pandemic.”
“However, problems identified in the inspector’s report do need to be tackled. I’m particularly concerned about the findings that the trust leadership had a lack of awareness of medical care at Weston General Hospital, that there was evidence of a lack of partnership working between the Bristol and Weston sites and that the leadership was not on top of some major concerns, including the supervision of junior doctors.”
“These are all issues that North Somerset Council has repeatedly raised with UHBW. Our Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel has strongly challenged trust leadership on progress and senior councillors and council officers have written to and met with management regularly to highlight local concerns about the pressures faced by Weston General Hospital.”
“We are due to meet again in the next couple of weeks and will be pressing for a stronger action plan to address the weaknesses identified. I welcome and endorse the comments from the inspectors that the Trust needs more support from NHS England and the local health and care system to deliver sustainable improvements. Now must surely be the time for more resources and investment to be delivered to Weston General Hospital to enable staff and management alike to turn the page and implement the improvements I know they want to see.”
“NHS staff have done an incredible job supporting our community through the Covid pandemic and it is great to see the care provided by staff at Weston highlighted and recognised by the CQC inspectors.”
