Renowned hospital ‘failing because of slashed budgets’

MINISTERS were accused yesterday of allowing a worldrenowned hospital to fail thousands of patients.

Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge has been put in special measures after watchdogs rated it inadequate and unsafe.

In the maternity unit inspectors found high levels of laughing gas, which can cause unconsciousness or death. The Care Quality Commission also warned of serious staffing shortages with one patient made to wait almost a year for a routine eye operation.

The failings come just two years after Addenbrooke’s was rated as one of the safest hospitals in the country. It is still considered a centre of excellence for major injuries, cancer treatment and organ transplants.

A Labour health spokesman blamed the crisis on nursing shortages and slashed care budgets.

Andrew Gwynne said Addenbrooke’s was overcrowded because councils could not fund support for elderly patients ready to be discharged.

‘This is a damning indictment of the Tories’ record on the NHS,’ he said. ‘ Patients who depend on Addenbrooke’s and the staff who work there have been badly let down by this Government. Many of the problems the hospital is facing with recruiting staff and discharging patients can be traced directly back to this Government’s decisions to cut nursing training and slash social care budgets.

‘The sad truth is that under the Tories care problems are becoming more likely, not less.’

The trust in charge, Cambridge University Hospitals, which serves 500,000 patients, has been placed under the close supervision of the health regulator Monitor. It has been told to make urgent changes to its organisation and finances.

The trust is running up debts of £1.2million a week, partly because it is relying on expensive agency nurses and overseas recruits.

The CQC warned that staffing shortages in the Rosie maternity hospital meant women in labour had been turned away.

Inspectors also found unusually high levels of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, which is given to relieve pain during childbirth.

Midwives had known for two years that there was an issue with poor ventilation but did nothing more than open extra windows. Staffing shortages across the trust meant doctors and nurses had to provide cover in departments where they had limited knowledge.

Mike Richards, chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC, said most staff were extremely caring and extremely skilled but managers had ‘lost their grip on some of the basics’.

The professor added: ‘Patients are being put at risk. It is not that we necessarily saw actual unsafe practice but we did see they would be put at risk if you don’t, for example, have sufficient numbers of midwives for women in labour.

‘That puts them at risk and it actually means that on several occasions the maternity unit has had to close and divert patients elsewhere,’ he told BBC News yesterday.

Ben Gummer, minister for care quality, said: ‘This Government inherited poor care at a number of hospitals around the country, and special measures is making good progress in turning those problems around.’

■ THE BBC yesterday chose not to report that the first privately run NHS hospital had received the fewest number of complaints.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman revealed Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire – which until recently was run by the private firm Circle – was the best performing general hospital out of 160.

The trust received an average of just one complaint for every 100,000 patient visits. The worst organisations had 14 times as many.

Yet despite extensive coverage of the Ombudsman’s report, the BBC neglected to mention this fact. Instead, it chose to focus on how not getting a good enough apology was the most common reason for patients to complain.

‘Damning indictment’