Bullying, sexism and racism still rife in city hospitals, says report
ASHOCKING new report by health regulators has painted a damning picture of staff bullying, sexism against women leaders, and racism at Birmingham’s main hospitals trust.
The leaders of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs the Queen Elizabeth, Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals, are still failing many of their staff, despite a restructure and change in leadership, says the Care Quality Commision (CQC).
The whole trust’s ‘well-led’ rating has now been downgraded to ‘inadequate’.
For too many staff a toxic culture prevails, more than a year after whistleblowers first exposed major concerns. Failings were not only found in staff culture, however.
Inspectors visited in August and October in the wake of damaging previous findings.
Charlotte Rudge, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: “Our experience tells us that when a trust isn’t well-led, this has an effect on the standard of services being provided to people.
“Some staff didn’t feel safe or protected from bullying and harassment, which had a negative effect on their wellbeing.
“This is completely unacceptable and must be addressed by leaders as a priority.
“However, despite these issues, staff were still focused on the needs of people receiving care and on providing the best treatment they could.
“We also heard positive comments from many staff about the support offered by their managers and the good teamworking that they experienced. We will continue to monitor the trust.”
Despite these issues, staff were still focused on the needs of people receiving care and on providing the best treatment they could CQC report
Junior doctors in particular still report hugely worrying concerns about bullying and workloads, nearly two years after the tragic death of junior doctor Vaishnavi Kumar.
Concerns had been raised with the board in July last year about alleged high sickness rates among junior doctors, bullying, intense workloads, a lack of awareness of welfare services and a ‘‘medium to high risk of burnout’’, said inspectors.
“Only 20% of junior doctors would recommend working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham,” they reported.
Half of post-grad doctors said they had felt bullied or intimidated at work, 32% said they had encountered or witnessed misogyny or racism and 48% said they did not feel they could raise concerns without fear of reprisal.
The trust board’s response was to set out an action plan that was ‘‘incomplete’’ and without measures of progress, said the CQC.
The inspectors also noted:
The quality of critical care for patients had deteriorated badly, and emergency departments at the three main hospitals were deemed inadequate on safety measures.
Maternity services at Heartlands had not improved since a warning notice was issued earlier last year and remain inadequate.
Neurological services at the QE and medical care at Good Hope were also rated ‘inadequate’.
Cancer services at the QE ‘require improvement’ while critical care services were downgraded to ‘require improvement’.