Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust 'has three months' to improve

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs Kings Mill Hospital

A Nottinghamshire NHS trust has been given three months to improve standards of care or risk being taken over by another trust, the BBC understands.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has failed to take adequate action to cut its high death rates, a healthcare report stated.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found a number of "serious problems" which were "extremely concerning".

The trust's chief executive apologised for letting patients down.

The trust, which runs Kings Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital, was placed in special measures two years ago because of concerns about death rates and standards of care.

Newark Hospital, along with Kings Mill Hospital, has been rated as inadequate by the CQC

The latest CQC report said the trust had almost double the national average rate of deaths from sepsis, a bloodstream infection.

"In 2010 and 2012, we raised mortality outlier alerts with the trust when information showed there were a higher number of deaths than expected for patients with sepsis," the report said.

"The trust had identified a third mortality outlier for patients with sepsis in the period April 2014 to January 2015."

CQC inspectors found major concerns, including resuscitation equipment not being on trolleys, which would leave patients suffering a cardiac arrest in crisis.

The report added the trust should remain in special measures, with the BBC understanding it could be taken over by another trust or the government if improvement is not made within around three months.

Analysis - Rob Sissons, East Midlands Health Correspondent

In medicine, a patient's condition rarely stays the same, they either improve or get worse - this can also be said of failing hospitals.

So, there is some shock at the news that Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has gone in the wrong direction. The Care Quality Commission rating moving from 'requires improvement' to 'inadequate'.

So what happens now? Closing the hospital isn't realistic - where would people go? Changes in management, or a takeover by another health trust may be considered, and after six chief executives in four years, the idea that one person at the top can solely change the culture may be wishful thinking.

However, the trust can at least breath a sigh of relief in the knowledge its staff are considered to be kind and caring.

Patients I spoke to outside King's Mill were generally very supportive of the hospital and impressed at the treatment they received.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the chief inspector of hospitals, said: "The trust's special measures action plan had 18 high-level action points to be completed by March 2015.

"Only one of these areas had been completed by the June inspection."

Karen Fisher, the trust's acting chief executive, said since the inspection it has seen a "downward trend in our mortality rates" from sepsis and now met national standards.

"We are sorry that we have let our patients down and are not meeting the quality standards that our patients rightly deserve," she said.

"There are a number of challenges that we now need to face."

Managers from other hospitals have been brought in to make improvements.

The trust provides services for people across north and mid-Nottinghamshire as well as parts of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.