NHS trust admits cultural reset needed

Health and Care Trust bosses were questioned by Worcestershire county councillors on Friday

An NHS trust has admitted a cultural reset is needed, after some staff said they had faced discrimination about their race and appearance.

In January, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust was downgraded from “good” to “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Senior managers have now admitted the trust has had issues with racism and discrimination, and said the report presented “uncomfortable truths”.

Following safety concerns about the acute wards for adults at the Hill Crest ward, in Redditch, the trust also said it was looking to relocate the unit to Worcester.

At the time of the inspection, the CQC said it had been prompted by concerns about patients' sexual safety at the Hill Crest unit.

However, the report published in January also highlighted staff interviews, which had revealed multiple examples where people felt they had been openly discriminated against.

Inspectors said senior leaders at the trust had not recognised early warning signs of a closed culture of work.

At a meeting of Worcestershire’s Health Overview Scrutiny Committee on Friday, Conservative councillor Emma Marshall asked senior managers if the trust had an issue with racism and discrimination.

“Like a lot of organisations, yes we do. We need to improve significantly,” deputy chief executive Robert Mackie said.

“So we are, unconsciously sometimes, but we are discriminating, and we are not being as welcoming and inclusive as we ought to be.”

Mr Mackie said that from April more than 600 staff holding leadership roles at the trust would begin a cultural awareness training programme. He also said the trust had taken a hard look at its equality, diversity and inclusion policies.

“The key bit that goes with that is about resetting the culture,” he said.

County Councillor Lynn Denham said the trust needed to show more than "warm, fuzzy words" and look at the experiences of patients

Labour county councillor Lynn Denham said the CQC report had raised profound concerns about how staff and patients were being treated.

She questioned how it was being tackled at "grass roots" level and whether staff from minority ethnicities felt supported.

The CQC inspected Hill Crest on 14 February 2023 and noted concerns about poor patient experience, high use of temporary staffing and a lack of proactivity in dealing with sexual safety incidents.

At the scrutiny meeting on Friday, the Health and Care Trust’s chief operating officer, Matthew Hall, said patient feedback had improved.

But he admitted more than half of substantive staff posts at the unit were vacant, with its running reliant on agency staffing.

The Hill Crest Ward is in Redditch, Worcestershire

The trust said the poor design of the Hill Crest ward meant it was looking to relocate the unit to a vacant ward at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital site.

It said discussions with staff were ongoing, with a final decision to be made in May.