Special report from MEN reveals failures at Pennine NHS Trust
- Aug 8, 2016
- EmmaArnold
A 'catalogue of long-term failings' were revealed by the Manchester Evening News today ahead of a critical report into Pennine Acute Trust.
The report from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which is due at the end of the week, is expected to find the Trust 'inadequate'.
The MEN newspaper revealed examples of failings including how serious incidents were left unreported due to staff fears, how ambulances may be diverted to neighboring hospitals at night due to the staffing crisis and how the morale in staff was at rock bottom.
The trust, which is one of the largest in the country covering North Manchester General Hospital, Royal Oldham, Rochdale Infirmary and Fairfield General, has had years of warnings about performance.
Hannah Bottomley, clinical negligence solicitor at PotterReesDolan said:
One of the main elements which worried me was the staff shortages noted in A&E at North Manchester General.
Staff shortages are always a cause for concern as they inevitably lead to delays in patients being seen by nurses and doctors and delays can result in a condition becoming much worse and injuries sadly ending up being permanent.
The staff shortages is one of the most serious concerns raised by these findings as this could lead to patients experiencing mistakes in surgery or another form of clinical negligence.
The MEN states how North Manchester General Hospital's A&E department currently on has two consultants compared to Salford which has 16 dedicated A&E consultants.
Sources told the newspaper how bad management in the department was also a contributing factor to the under-staffing issue leading to some experienced health workers leaving as a result.
The MEN has published an opinion piece on the story which includes comments such as:
Flicking through the trust’s board papers, the figures - waiting times, staffing levels, agency spending, missed cancer targets, a backlog of paperwork - were slowly indicating a mounting crisis. But there is little to suggest managers fully appreciated the scale of what was going wrong.
It took the CQC and Sir David Dalton to finally do that. That they are now taking matters in hand is to be welcomed.
The MEN has added a comments box for any patients to share their opinion at the bottom of this webpage.
If you or a family member have suffered a form of clinical negligence whilst at any of the hospitals featured then get in touch with one of our clinical negligence team today or fill out the contact form here.