CQC highlights quality problems at Tameside

The Care Quality Commission said it had found “serious shortfalls” at Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust and ordered it to make improvements. Inspectors visited Tameside General Hospital in January and found it was failing to meet eight of 11 national standards reviewed.

They found that staff had a lack of understanding about mental health law and discovered one patient who had been unlawfully detained for “several days”.

A number of elective operations had been cancelled because of bed shortages, a spokesman said.

CQC officials found that on a number of wards and the medical assessment and admissions unit there were not enough staff to meet patients’ needs, and they were rushing to complete tasks. In parts of the hospital patients were not being treated in a dignified way.

Tameside was one of 11 hospitals put into regulatory “special measures” last summer, after being investigated because of persistently high mortality ratios in the wake of the Francis public inquiry report. It remains in special measures.

CQC regional director for the north Malcolm Bower-Brown said: “Although we were pleased to find improvement in some areas since our last inspection, our inspectors found a number of serious shortfalls against national standards.

“As this trust is currently in special measures and already subject to enforcement action by Monitor, we have also shared the findings of our inspection with Monitor and asked them to ensure the concerns we have identified are addressed as part of their overall improvement programme for the trust.”