WORCESTERSHIRE’S two major hospitals are being “overwhelmed”, a critical report into A&E services in the county has said.

The Care Quality Commission carried out a surprise inspection at the A&E departments at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital on Tuesday, March 24 and released its findings this morning.

The report raises a raft of concerns around the amount of time it took to hand over patients from ambulances to A&E and treatment being carried out in corridors, as well as staffing levels, with 40 per cent of all senior staff being employed through an agency. Inspectors said they were particularly concerned that there was only one consultant covering the two departments after 5pm.

The inspectors also raised concerns around the safety of children at the two sites and said some incidents were not reported, while staff had reported not having time to properly check equipment. It was also found the management, storage, disposal and recording of medication was “not robust”.

The inspection was carried out following an extremely difficult winter at the two hospitals, with a constantly high level of patients leading to overcrowding at A&E, in some cases meaning they had to be treated in the corridors.

This also led to ever-increasing waiting times at A&E, hundreds of cancelled operations and a range of other problems.

The report sets out a series of improvements the trust is required to carry out, including ensuring a sufficient amount of qualified and experienced staff are on hand at all times, that patients are monitored and reviewed on a timely and regular basis and assessments are carried out in line with national standards.

The trust has also been told to address concerns around overcrowding in A&E, ensure all equipment is checked on a regular basis and make sure paper records are maintained properly.

Chief inspector of hospitals at the CQC Professor Sir Mike Richards said inspectors had been “concerned” about what they saw during the visit.

“This is why we took immediate action,” he said. “Our team gave feedback on their findings to the trust as soon as they had finished their inspection and this was quickly followed by the CQC issuing warning notices and placing a condition on the trust's registration.

"Our inspectors will return to the trust unannounced at a future date to check on whether improvements have been made.”

He added the organisation would consider taking further action if improvements were not found to have been made.

"Significant work is needed to improve services at the trust so that it meets the standards people have a right to expect,” he said.

"The trust knows what it now needs to do to ensure change takes place."

The report has been generally welcomed across the county’s healthcare community, with acting chief executive at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the two sites as well as Kidderminster Hospital, Chris Tidman said he and colleagues had already put a number of changes in place following the inspection, including setting up 12 new cubicles at the Royal’s A&E and increasing staffing levels.

“The report reflects what was a very difficult time for our emergency departments – particularly at Worcestershire Royal Hospital,” he said. “We know that improvement was needed in some areas of our practice and have been working hard to make the necessary changes.”

But he said he recognised more needed to be done.

“Although we are in a much stronger and stable position now, we know that there is a long journey towards sustaining improvements across the trust and we welcome the support from our health and care partners and the recommendations from independent reviews to help us deliver better urgent care for our patients,” he said.

“Our focus remains on ensuring that all of our hospitals are fit to cope with the growing pressures we are facing, and provide safe, quality care for all of our patients.”

NHS South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group’s chief clinical officer Dr Carl Ellson said the changes were already having an impact both on the care patients were receiving as well as the culture among staff.

“The trust has acted quickly to implement some of the identified improvements and I am hopeful that we will continue to see progress over the coming months,” he said.

“We remain committed to supporting the trust through this process and are working closely with them and other partners to make the required changes.”

Director of nursing, quality and clinical commissioning at West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust Mark Docherty also welcomed the changes put in place by the trust, saying a particular improvement had been seen in the amount of time it was taking to hand over patients.

To view the full report click here.