Safety concerns remain for city hospitals

CQC inspectors visited the LRI in January

Health inspectors have said more needs to be done to improve the safety of Leicester's NHS maternity and emergency care services.

The Care Quality Commission's (CQC) latest inspections found Leicester Royal Infirmary's (LRI) A&E department was overcrowded and patients were waiting too long to be seen.

Inspectors also found there were not always enough maternity staff to keep mothers and babies safe at the LRI and Leicester General Hospital.

The trust has apologised and acknowledged it has more to do to improve.

The trust said new maternity services were due to open at Leicester General Hospital in the summer

Last year the CQC issued a warning notice to UHL requiring it to take urgent action to address risks to mothers and babies in its care.

That followed a warning, in 2022, to improve its urgent and emergency care.

The CQC said improvements made since then had meant the terms of both warning notices had been met.

However new CQC inspection reports, published on Friday, said the LRI's urgent and emergency care services remained rated as "requires improvement" for being safe and responsive.

Maternity services at the LRI and General hospital had improved from their previous inadequate rating to "requires improvement", the CQC said.

Charlotte Rudge, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: “When we inspected University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, we found some improvements had been made, although more changes were needed to improve the standard of care people were receiving.

“For example, some people couldn’t always access the urgent and emergency care services when they needed them in a timely way and were waiting too long to be seen and for treatment due to the department being overcrowded.

“However, in maternity services at Leicester General Hospital, some action had been taken to improve the environment’s safety.

She added: “It’s clear that staff and leaders had worked hard to make some improvements, and leaders know where further changes are necessary."

UHL's overall rating, of requires improvement, has not changed following the latest inspections, the CQC said.

'More to do'

CQC inspectors visited the LRI in January and found some people could not always access the emergency care when they needed it.

Their report said the service was not meeting many national standards or metrics around responsive care and treatment with patients having to wait in ambulances before going into the department.

However inspectors said staff were caring and kind and focused on the needs of people receiving care.

They found the LRI maternity department was not always properly staffed and some incidents went unreported

Inspectors also assessed Leicester General Hospital maternity services in January finding it did not always have enough staff to keep patients safe.

They said staff did not always assess and identify risks or keep good care records.

Chief nurse Julie Hogg said there was "significant" demand for emergency care

UHL's chief nurse Julie Hogg said progress had been made since the January maternity inspection including the recruitment of 29 midwives - with another 51 due to start before November.

The trust had also recruited three new consultant obstetricians and nine speciality doctors, she said.

Ms Hogg said a new maternity theatre and day case assessment unit was set to open at Leicester General Hospital in the summer.

She added: "We fully acknowledge we have much more to do to ensure our services are of the standard we want them to be and that our patients have a right to expect."

Continued monitoring

Ms Hogg said there had also been improvements to emergency care, adding: “Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen several improvements including in our monthly 4-hour wait targets, a reduction in ambulance handover times and the number of discharges we were able to make to free up capacity to care for those waiting.

“However, the significant demand for urgent and emergency care mean waiting times continue to be an issue and we know some people experience a long wait in our emergency department. I apologise to anyone affected by this.

“Together with our partners, we are focused on improving urgent and emergency care services to meet the needs of local people.”

The CQC said it would continue to monitor the trust while improvements were made.

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