Nursing chief says staff have 'tough enough' job after Walsall CQC report

Lindsay Meeks, the regional director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the West Midlands, said it was clear staffing shortages compromised the quality and safety of patient care.

A focused inspection was carried out at Walsall Manor Hospital due to concerns raised about the safety and quality of services, specifically within the medical wards at the hospital.

After the inspection, the Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust was issued with a warning notice due to concerns found around staffing and governance – as well as how patients were discharged. The notice has given the trust three months to rectify areas of concern identified.

Ms Meeks said: "The CQC’s report is clear that staffing shortages compromised the quality and safety of patient care. That’s unacceptable and, I’m sure, will be distressing and exasperating for nursing staff to hear.

“Nursing staff on medical wards have a tough enough job without having to contend with persistent staff shortages in order to keep patients safe and well cared-for.

“It’s a testimony to the hard work and professionalism of the staff at Walsall that the CQC recognised the kind and compassionate care they provide, but they should not be faced with the additional pressure of too few staff being on duty.

"It’s not fair on them and it puts patient care at risk.”

The improvements needed to be made at the Walsall include putting systems in place to ensure staff are suitably qualified, skilled and competent to care for and meet the needs of patients within all areas of the medical services; effective risk and governance systems must be embedded that support safe, quality care; and systems must also be put in place to ensure staffing is actively assessed, reviewed and escalated appropriately to prevent exposing patients to the risk of harm.

The trust must also ensure all staff are competent in the use of the recommended summary plan for emergency care and treatment (ReSPECT) forms.

As a result of the inspection, the overall rating of medical services at Walsall Manor Hospital changed from requires improvement to inadequate.

Medical services were rated inadequate for being safe, responsive and well-led.

The overall trust rating remains unchanged as requires improvement.

Professor David Loughton CBE, interim chief executive at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, has pledged to increase support to staff in light of the findings of the report and praised their dedication, working tirelessly throughout the pandemic.

An action plan has now been put in place to improve the trust's medical services and will focus on the key CQC findings – including that the trust didn’t always have enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe; that some patients didn’t receive individualised plans of care for their end of life care; that there was an inconsistent approach to how leaders ran services which meant staff did not always feel respected, supported and valued; and that leaders did not operate an effective governance process to continually improve the quality of the service and safeguard the standards of care.