An enforcement notice has been issued over the care of patients in a Cumbrian hospital’s A&E department.
The Care Quality Commission carried out an unannounced inspection of Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary’s emergency department in February and found a number of concerns.
Inspectors returned in March for a further review and as a result, the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, was handed the enforcement notice.
The main areas of concern were around the care of mental health patients in the emergency department and oversight of patients in the waiting area.
The trust said it had implemented immediate actions to respond to the issues.
It said they included:
- A healthcare assistant or registered nurse is now assigned to the emergency department waiting room to improve the oversight of patients and to identify and support any patients with deteriorating conditions
- Its dedicated mental health assessment room has been reviewed and work has been completed including removal of a sink and new furniture
- New processes have been put in place to ensure that mental health risk assessments are carried out quickly when a patient arrives in the department and any safeguarding measures are put in place to protect that patient during their time in the department.
The trust said a recent mental health assessment audit showed that the department was now consistently achieving 100% compliance with patients receiving an assessment.
Gill Findley, the trust’s chief nurse, said: “We know that all of our colleagues come to work to do a good job for their patients every day so naturally it is very disappointing and concerning to receive an enforcement notice.
“The team in the emergency department have responded really well to the notice and have been determined to make the necessary improvements.
“We recognise that we need to improve our urgent care facilities at the Cumberland Infirmary.
“The emergency departmentwas originally designed to accommodate 30,000 patients a year and we are now seeing around 70,000.
“That is why we are investing £4m into our urgent and emergency care services to help us to stream less urgent cases to the most appropriate place and free up emergency department for the critically ill patients.”
The Care Quality Commission did find that staff delivered kind, calm and compassionate care in challenging circumstances and patients provided positive feedback about the care they received.
