Hospitals' emergency services 'need improvement'

Lincoln County Hospital's emergency services were inspected by the Care Quality Commission in October and July

Two Lincolnshire hospitals have been told their emergency departments require improvement, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said.

Lincoln County Hospital underwent inspections in October and July, with long waits in A&E and cleanliness concerns raised.

Boston Pilgrim Hospital's urgent and emergency services were assessed in November, where CQC found it "did not always adhere to safe storage of medicines".

Prof Karen Dunderdale, group chief executive for Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group, said they were "making significant steps towards improving safety and effectiveness of our services".

On 16 October, CQC carried out an "unannounced assessment" of urgent and emergency care at Lincoln County Hospital, and found the department to be "under adverse pressure".

Findings of the report included "long waits for beds across the department in both the majors and seated majors areas".

CQC also found that while "most areas within the department were observed to be clean during the inspection process, there were a few instances where this was not the case".

Boston Pilgrim Hospital was inspected by the Care Quality Commission in November

During Boston Pilgrim Hospital's urgent and emergency services inspection on 27 November, CQC found that there was "one breach of the legal regulations in relation to safe storage of medicines".

This related to the monitoring of room and fridge temperatures where medicines were stored was "not done regularly", and "were not always stored in locked cupboards".

CQC said that following the inspection the trust had "taken some action in these areas" and that "at the time of publication this is not an ongoing breach".

Both hospitals' emergency departments were rated "good" for being caring, and found that staff "treated people with kindness, empathy and compassion".

Ms Dunderdale said the trust was "pleased overall" with the areas of praise and progress recognised in the two reports.

This included the work that departments do in caring with patients, and some "significant improvements in performance around waiting times and leadership", she said.

Ms Dunderdale added that the level of care they want to provide had "fallen short in some areas".

"We would like to reassure our patients that we have been making significant steps towards improving safety and effectiveness of our services to ensure that we can provide the best quality emergency care to the people of Lincolnshire," she said.

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