Kettering General: Hospital warned to improve over falls concerns

Kettering General Hospital was inspected by the health watchdog after concerns were raised about patient falls

Medical care at a hospital has been downgraded to inadequate after concerns were raised about patient falls.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors visited Kettering General Hospital in May, after "several serious incidents resulting in harm".

The NHS trust was rated overall as "requires improvement" - and issued with a warning notice.

The trust said it was "implementing new ways of working" in light of the report.

Bernadette Hanney, CQC head of hospital inspection, said there had been "several serious incidents resulting in harm from falls where a lack of staff knowledge was identified as the cause, yet mandatory falls training was not undertaken until months later".

The watchdog investigated an undisclosed number of falls between December 2019 and March 2021.

Blood pressures were not always recorded for all over-65s when they were lying or standing, or for patients with a medical condition that would increase the risk of falling, she said.

"Lessons weren't being learnt and preventative actions to reduce the risk of people being hurt were not consistently implemented," she added.

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On 1 July, Kettering and Northampton hospitals joined to form the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) NHS Group.

CQC inspectors visited Kettering General Hospital over concerns at the number of patient falls

The report revealed that at the time of the inspection, two-thirds of relevant staff had not completed training on patient falls.

However, it recognised that improvements had been made on Naseby ward "where there had been several serious falls".

The hospital's director of nursing and quality, Leanne Hackshall, said: "We have undertaken an immense amount of focused work... to address the CQC's findings."

The changes include revising care planning documentation to enable staff to maintain continuous records of risk and action taken, the introduction of new training to ensure staff know how to effectively assess risk, and "bay tagging" to ensure there is always someone present in the bay to reduce the risk of falls.

Weekly "staff engagement" sessions to "address issues or challenges" have also been introduced.

The number of patient falls was "now at the lowest it has been over the past two years", Ms Hackshall added.

The trust said the CQC had recognised "that the hospital's ageing estate, including narrow wards, do not provide a well-designed spacious modern environment, in which to deliver safe patient care", but this was being addressed.