Care Quality Commission finds half of A&E care during winter period unsatisfactory

A recent Care Quality Commission report has found that whilst there are plenty of examples of good practice and NHS staff doing everything they can to ensure patient safety, 50% of urgent and emergency services were rated as ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ overall, with 8% rated as ‘inadequate’ for safety. Concerns have focussed around delayed ambulance handovers, long waiting times for a first clinical assessment, and the inappropriate use of corridors for patient care. The CQC said their reviews “have raised concerns about the timeliness of this planning and the extent to which all partners across the system are involved in the planning process, with independent social care providers and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations often less engaged”.
Professor Ted Baker, chief inspector of Hospitals at the CQC said: “Hospitals cannot work alone to address the ever increasing demand on services – there has to be a system wide approach with all parts of the health and social care system working together to find solutions. We cannot accept that each winter will be worse than the one before – we are already seeing the impact on both patients and staff. It is clear that what used to work doesn’t work anymore – new ways of collaborating and planning for surges in demand need to happen now to ensure that next winter is different.”
Dr Taj Hassan, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “Patient safety is now either inadequate or needs improvement in almost two thirds of Type I [emergency departments] in England and just 1% of Trusts are rated as ‘Outstanding’ in regard to safety. Hospitals must take collective ownership of ED performance and understand that every department has to play their part for these measures to work. However, we would encourage system leaders to concentrate on capacity and output measures rather than focus on the 15-20 percent of patients that could be better treated elsewhere.”