THE Royal Bournemouth Hospital is improving following a damning report a year ago, a new inspection published today reveals.

Last year the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said that the hospital was providing inadequate medical care and that staffing levels on surgical wards at night “were not safe”.

It said that basic nursing care was not being given to patients in two medical care wards and that the hospital trust did not employ enough staff, even though it was aware that nearly all of its beds were occupied all of the time.

But today, the results of a follow-up inspection have been published and the four “compliance actions” – areas where the hospital needed to urgently improve – that were put in place have been lifted.

Improvements were still needed in several areas, the report said, including increasing privacy for patients in A&E, accurate recording of fluid intake and output, ensuring records of checks on equipment were accurate and improving mental health care in A&E and, which was not yet a 24-hour service.

In the new report, the CQC said: “We found a clear commitment to quality improvement at all levels of the organisation and more robust quality assurance processes.”

It added that the trust had taken steps to ensure that patients received timely care.

RBH chief executive Tony Spotswood said: “Leadership within the organisation has been a crucial focus for the board of directors in ensuring we provide quality care for all patients.

“Our nursing leadership is more focused, with the appointment of 14 matrons.

“We have also appointed over 30 consultants since October 2013 in a range of specialities in medicine, radiology, surgery and care of the elderly.”

Director of nursing Paula Shobbrook added: “We know there is further improvement to make. As well as continuing to work on improving the flow of patients, strengthening the out-of-hours crisis support and continuing with our recruitment, we have work to do to improve our stroke service response time out-of-hours.

“There are areas where the CQC have said in its report we should make improvement, which we accept and are addressing.”

'PLEASED TO SEE PROGRESS'

THE Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “Our inspection last year highlighted some real concerns, particularly about the quality of care on some wards, the staffing levels and the trust’s strategy to cope with high occupancy rates.

“So I am very pleased to see that our latest inspection has found definite progress, which has led to a much better service for patients.

“At the time, the impact of poor care outweighed the many positive comments we received about the hospital.

“It is now clear that the trust took our findings to heart, seeking external advice to help it improve leadership across all services, particularly in the A&E department and medical services, which we have now found to be much more responsive to the needs of patients.

“It is encouraging that we found that staff were proud of the improvements achieved since the last inspection, but they recognised that there was more to be done to ensure the changes were embedded and the quality of services sustained. I shall continue to monitor their progress.”