Hospital criticised over poor care taken out of special measures

A hospital in Greater Manchester is being taken out of special measures two years after a damning report.

The Care Quality Commission found significant improvements at Tameside General hospital. There were previous concerns about high death rates, lack of staff and the quality of care.

The report found a number of improvements were still to be made particularly in critical care services which had previously been rated inadequate.

The trust was placed into special measures by Monitor following a recommendation by Sir Bruce Keogh in July 2013. After a further inspection last year rated the trust as Inadequate, Sir Mike recommended that it should remain in special measures.

Following the latest inspection, in April, the trust has now been rated as Requires Improvement overall. The trust has been rated Good for being well led, and Good for caring. The full reports and ratings are available at http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RMP

CQC has told the trust it must make improvements in a number of areas:

• The trust must ensure that it has enough doctors to meet the needs of patients at all times including out of hours.

• Patient flow must improve throughout the hospital to reduce the number of patients transferred at night and ensure timely access to the service best suited to meet the patient’s needs, particularly in A&E and medical care services.

• There must be improvements in completion levels of mandatory training and appraisals for nursing and medical staff.

• Medicines, particularly controlled drugs must be stored, checked and disposed of in line with best practice, particularly in A&E and outpatients.