Barnsley hospice watchdog concerns over quality of service

The hospice said it was working with the CQC to ensure improvements were made

Significant concerns remain about the quality of services provided by a hospice, a watchdog has said.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Barnsley Hospice as inadequate and placed it in special measures in 2021.

An inspection in January found that although some improvements had been made, there were still concerns over patient safety.

The hospice said it accepted it had "fallen short" and was working to address the issues the CQC had raised.

Inspectors had concerns about infection risk controls and how safety incidents were managed and said staff lacked training in key skills.

There were also issues about how well staff understood consent and they did not always gain consent from patients in line with legislation and guidance.

Sarah Dronsfield, CQC's head of hospital inspection, said it was concerning that "there were still some breaches which hadn't been addressed" since the previous inspection.

"These breaches include ensuring incidents are properly reported and investigated, and that learning is shared to prevent similar incidents occurring," she said.

Inspectors did find there were enough staff to keep patients safe and said feedback from patients had been "generally positive".

'Extraordinary efforts'

Ms Dronsfield said: "We'll continue to monitor the service closely and will return to inspect to see what improvements have been made.

"At that point, if we're not satisfied sufficient changes have been made and embedded, we won't hesitate to take further enforcement action to keep people safe."

Martine Tune, chief executive officer and chief nurse of Barnsley Hospice, said they took the findings very seriously.

"[We] accept we have fallen short in meeting some of the standards required," she said.

"We want to assure the people of Barnsley that we are making extraordinary efforts to work with the CQC and address all issues raised as part of our continuous improvement journey."

She said many changes had been made since the inspection in January and a new executive leadership team had been appointed.