Concern as patients ‘did not appear well cared for’

HEALTH inspectors have raised concerns that “many patients” in a Scottish hospital did “not appear well cared for” – with a shocking report telling how they saw the A&E department operating at 230 per cent of capacity.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) visited Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, near Falkirk, with their report describing the “extreme pressures” on services there.

The inspectors made clear: “In some areas, including the emergency department and admission units, many patients did not appear well cared for.”

Inspectors saw patients being treated in chairs, with IV drips that had “run dry”, while one person had to wait 25 hours before being found a place in a ward.

Staff at the hospital were seen to be “tearful” and “appeared worried about not being able to provide appropriate safe care and dignity for patients due to overcrowding”.

HIS staff had already made two visits to Forth Valley Royal Hospital in April, before making an unannounced follow-up inspection in September, which they said “raised further serious concerns about the safety and quality of care at Forth Valley Royal Hospital”.

Inspectors have raised these concerns with both NHS Forth Valley and the Scottish Government.

Their report into care at the hospital told how the emergency department was under “extreme pressure” with “occupancy within the emergency department reaching 230% at points throughout the day”.

It stated: “This meant an increase of 130% more patients in the department than it was designed to accommodate.

“The longest wait time for patients awaiting transfer to ward areas was 25 hours.”

Meanwhile, ambulance crews were forced to wait to transfer patients to the hospital “due to lack of physical space, or staff capacity to take over the care of these patients”.

The inspectors said: “We observed staff working under extreme pressure which impacted staff and the patients receiving care.”

In the emergency department and other areas, the inspectors found “many patients were being cared for in chaired areas in corridors and within the departments”.

Inspectors also told how they were “approached by patients in the emergency department and admission units who were struggling to access medicines for pain relief or not receiving their scheduled medicines at the correct time intervals”.

The report went on to detail “unsafe practice” with regards to medicines, saying inspectors had seen staff in one unit prepare intravenous medicines, before handing these to staff in another unit to be administered – with this being done “without staff checking if it was the correct medicine, the correct dose or the correct patient receiving the medicine”.

In some ward areas, the inspectors said, “we observed medicines cupboards left unlocked and unattended”.

HIS has now issued a further 11 requirements for improvement at Forth Valley Hospital, having made nine requirements earlier this year.

Cathie Cowan, the chief executive of NHS Forth Valley, said: “I would like to apologise to those patients whose care and treatment fell below the high standards we aim to provide.

“The report highlights a number of serious issues and immediate action was taken following the visit . We recognise that there is still more work to do.

“Local staff continue to deliver high standards of clinical care and treatment in very challenging circumstances, and I want to thank them for their hard work and commitment.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The concerns raised by HIS and escalated to the Scottish Government are one of the factors that has led to NHS Forth Valley’s escalation to Level 4.

“We will scrutinise NHS Forth Valley’s Improvement Plan and hold the leadership to account for the effective delivery of improvement actions. ”