Watchdog says hospital still needs to improve

The Royal Oldham Hospital has been told it still needs to improve

Medical services at a Greater Manchester hospital still require improvement, a new inspection has found.

The Royal Oldham Hospital Trust was investigated after concerns were raised by members of the public about the quality of care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it had found some improvement but overall there was still work to do.

Its report highlighted that risks – including early management of sepsis – were not always managed well but that there was generally a positive, safety-focused culture.

Sharp objects

The report, based on visits last autumn, found safety, effectiveness and leadership all still required improvement.

But the trust – run by the Northern Care Alliance – was found to still provide a caring service to patients.

Concerns raised included storage cupboards containing sharp objects and potential ligatures being left open.

The report also said staff had highlighted a shortage of medical cover at times, with "only one or two trainee doctors for the whole hospital".

Bank and agency staff and locum use was common, the staff told the watchdog's inspectors.

'Kindness and compassion'

In its report, the CQC said: "Our concerns included the trust not having clear processes for decision-making [or] clinical and environmental risk assessments relating to the transfer of patients to non-clinical spaces on medical wards."

The report said: "Four members of ward staff told us they had tried to challenge transfers they believed were inappropriate... but their concerns were not acted on.

"We also identified regulatory breaches relating to responsivity, medicines management, and health and safety.

"However, aside from our concerns, the service had a positive safety-focused culture."

Alison Chilton, the CQC's deputy director of operations in Greater Manchester, said: "When we inspected medical care services at Royal Oldham Hospital, we found staff who showed kindness and compassion in their day-to-day work."

She added the CQC was "pleased to see improvements leaders had made to how responsive the service was to people's individual needs" but said there were "concerns about people's safety and dignity" that needed to be acted upon.