HEALTH officials and politicians have reacted with dismay following yesterday’s damning CQC report of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Inspectors found that medical care, including older people’s care was inadequate and that staffing levels on surgical wards at night “were not safe”.

The new Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, reported that “basic nursing care was not being given to patients in two medical care wards.”

He added that the trust did not employ enough staff, even though it was fully aware that nearly all of its beds were occupied all of the time.

View the Care Quality Commission's report into Royal Bournemouth Hospital

Julie Connolly, Dorset’s regional officer for the Royal College of Nursing, said members were “extremely upset” to hear about the failings in care.

“The report shows that the staff have been concerned about the impact of staffing levels and high workloads on the levels of care they are able to provide.

“We do have a positive relationship with the Trust and they are telling us that they are committed to making the improvements needed to provide safe, quality care.

“We will be keeping a close eye on the progress of the Trust’s improvement plan in the coming months.

“I will be in the Trust alongside our local RCN representatives to offer support to staff and to raise issues to the Trust on their behalf. It is very important that staff speak out and we can support them to do that.”

Regional director Jeannett Martin added: “The Care Quality Commission has identified serious failings at the Royal Bourne-mouth and Christchurch NHS Foundation Trust which will be of great concern to members of the RCN and to the local population.

“The Trust had already started to implement plans for improvement within many of the areas that the CQC highlighted and they are committed to undertake any further work that will be needed.”

Healthwatch Dorset, is a newly-established local independent consumer body for health and social care, chaired by Sam Johnson.

In a statement, it said: “Everyone has a right to expect that if they find themselves a patient in hospital they will be safe, they will receive the highest standard of care, their needs will be met and their dignity will be respected.

“What the recent inspection of the Royal Bournemouth Hospital found was that this is true for some of their patients, but not all. In particular, we are very concerned at what it has to report about some cases of frail older people not being treated with dignity and respect and not being afforded basic nursing care.

“We call on the Trust Board and management to act immediately to rectify the failings found by this inspection and to put in place measures that will ensure that every single patient is safe, every single patient is receiving the high standard of care they have the right to expect, and every single patient’s dignity is being respected. “Only then will the hospital have the right to use the strapline it displays on its publicity material – ‘putting patients first’.”