Torbay Hospital understaffed, CQC inspection finds

The hospital's previous CQC rating "requires improvement" remains

A hospital was too understaffed to meet the needs of patients, an unannounced inspection found.

Torbay Hospital, Devon, was assessed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in December after the regulator received "information of concern".

Its report, published on Friday, said bosses "acted quickly" on calls for improvements to medical care services.

The hospital trust said it was "doing everything it could" to deliver safe care for patients.

Cath Campbell, CQC's head of hospital inspection, said: "We were concerned to find some of the wards didn't have enough staff to meet the needs of patients, especially those on a dedicated Covid-19 ward".

She added that Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust was not able to provide evidence that there were enough staff on the ward to monitor patients to keep them safe.

'Staff so overworked'

The inspection also found that while staff gave patients enough food and drink, there were no records of what they had consumed.

Ms Campbell said: "Staff told us that they felt so overworked they didn't have time to complete incident forms to let the trust know about the low staffing numbers."

She said: "I am pleased to say that trust leaders acted quickly to put an improvement plan together which they have started to action."

Liz Davenport, chief executive of the trust, said: "Clearly we're disappointed but we accept the findings and we're doing everything we can to make sure that we are delivering safe care for our patients.

"We are reviewing every single patient every day... they are given a named individual to work with to make sure that they get the support they need."

The CQC said it was continuing to monitor the service to ensure that improvements are "fully embedded".