DORCHESTER County Hospital has won back its overall 'good' rating from the government's inspectorate but still needs to improve its safety, inspectors warned.
The Care Quality Commission found that in urgent and emergency care, maternity services and outpatients, staff were not up to date with their mandatory training.
Some safety improvements had been made to the room in A&E for patients with mental health needs but there were remaining risks for safety of those patients, particularly regarding ligature points and safety of furnishings.
Inspectors also found that medicine storage and management of waste arising from the use of pain relief gas was not maintained to a sufficient standard in maternity. For children’s care, staffing levels in the accident and emergency department did not meet the expected standards.
The inspection team visited the hospital during July and August 2018 to check the quality of five core services: urgent and emergency care, maternity, end of life care, outpatients, and diagnostic imaging at Dorset County Hospital and Weymouth Community Hospital.
Dr Nigel Acheson, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals for the south, said: “Since we last inspected, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has worked incredibly hard to improve in most areas and I want to congratulate them from moving from Requires Improvement to achieving their overall Good rating."
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