A New Report Released By The CQC Has Found A Number Of Issues At Alder Hey Hospital

A new report released by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found a number of failings at a hospital in Liverpool.

Alder Hey Hospital is well known in the area for its provision of care for sick children, but a new study from the CQC has found areas for improvement in regards to safety.

Hospital staff regularly failed to meet accepted standards of care and welfare, staffing, supporting workers, or auditing, according to BBC News.

When the inspection that led to this report took place, there were an unusually high number of absences among doctors and nurses, which led to operations across the facility to be cancelled.

Indeed, such was the rate of absenteeism, the CQC concluded that patients were being put at risk of harm, while "nursing staff were rushed to meet the needs" of people on wards - something that compromised the quality of care they could give.

Malcolm Bower-Brown, the CQC's regional director for the north of England, described the issues found by inspectors at Alder Hey "worrying" and urged bosses at the institution to improve as soon as possible.

"We have told the trust where further action must be taken to ensure national standards are met and that patients receive the quality of care they are entitled to expect," Mr Bower-Brown added.

"Undertaking announced inspections in response to information of concern is a vital part of CQC's role and we encourage anyone with concerns about any registered service to contact us immediately."

Earlier this year, an internal review into Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust found that inexperienced nurses were regularly asked to go beyond the call of duty and provide care that they had not been trained for.

This meant that many failings and near-misses were not reported as should have been protocol, the Daily Mail reported at the time.

Alder Hey Children's Hospital treats 270,000 patients a year and was opened in 1914.

Expert Opinion

It is worrying that the CQC has found areas for improvement at Alder Hey Hospital – especially given that the report concludes that patients were being put at risk of harm. <br/> <br/>“It is crucial that hospitals are resourced appropriately to ensure patient safety can be the number one priority. The CQC paints the picture of a hospital where nursing staff were stretched so much that it compromised the quality of their care. <br/> <br/>“We hope that the resource levels are improved as an immediate priority so that staff can ensure they provide an excellent service to their patients. We see first-hand on a daily basis the consequences of poor standards of care in hospitals and more must be done to prevent incidents of medical negligence.” Lisa Jordan - Partner