Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Infection control issues uncovered at hospital
Highest Covid-19 death toll in England sparked inspectors visit
‘We are receiving expert support to help make these improvements’
An under-fire hospitals trust accused of failing to contain the spread of coronavirus has been ordered to make “urgent improvements” after the discovery of a series of infection control issues. Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Ashford’s William Harvey hospital and observed staff failing to wash their hands properly, ignoring social distancing rules and wearing incorrect PPE. It also found that regular cleans were often not carried out or recorded, and that some staff did not understand what needed to be done if a walk-in patient presented with Covid19 symptoms. Incredibly, the visit on August 12 followed reports that in-hospital transmission had likely been a factor in the trust recording the highest Covid-19 death toll in England throughout June and July. Across those two months, 141 people died with coronavirus at its sites in Ashford,
Canterbury, Margate, Dover and Folkestone - 59 more than at any other trust. Furthermore, figures in July showed that 58% of Covid-19 patients in east Kent’s hospitals “probably” caught the virus after they had been admitted.
The national average for the same period was 22%. The CQC - an independent health regulator - is set to publish a full report on its findings in due course, but has provided initial feedback following the inspection, which it says the Trust has “immediately acted on”. Inspectors identified a number of problems, including that staff did not always practise correct hand hygiene, and not all sinks had soap available.
They also found staff lacked clarity on the Covid-19 testing methodology, that incorrect PPE had been used or had not been used correctly, that two-hourly cleaning was not carried out or recorded, and that non-wipeable furniture was in use.
The CQC says hand sanitiser stations were not always replenished and staff were also “not following social distancing in a staff room”. There was also a lack of sinks within the emergency department for staff and visitors, and a lack of hand hygiene guidance on display. Responding to the findings, a spokesman for East Kent Hospitals said: “The safety and wellbeing of our patients and staff is at the heart of everything we do and we are making urgent improvements to infection prevention and control in all our hospitals. “We have made physical changes to our buildings to support better social distancing and we have strengthened our procedures and continue to repeat staff training. “We are receiving expert support to help make these improvements, and we are regularly reporting our actions to the CQC.”
The trust has put a number of improvements in place to improve its ‘infection prevention and control’ (IPC) programme.
These include refreshed mandatory training for all clinical staff across the trust, and the recruitment of a new interim Director of Infection, Prevention and Control. The trust is also carrying out a review of its IPC policies, and has made physical changes to its sites.
It is also ensuring staff are aware of the best practices around hand hygiene and the use of the correct PPE, and has introduced a new programme around hand sanitising stations to ensure they are working correctly and filled.