Trust agrees to regulatory action on A&E

The agreement is one of a series of measures introduced by the troubled trust at the request of Monitor, the healthcare regulator. Kettering is failing to see 95 per cent of patients in its A&E unit within four hours, as national targets require.

The regulator is concerned that the trust’s weakness in A&E care points toward wider management problems at the East Midland provider.

It has now secured legally binding undertakings from the trust’s new leadership team that a package of necessary changes will be effectively implemented. 

Alongside the rolling weekly analysis, the watchdog wants a robust and realistic emergency care action plan drawn up by 9 May.

The trust must also identify the main internal and external risks to providing quality emergency care in the long term and develop solutions to them.

In addition, it is to ensure that it is fully compliant with all Health & Safety Executive and local Fire Authority requirements.

Adam Cayley, regional director at Monitor, said:”We believe this strong package of regulatory measures will ensure the trust makes the necessary improvement that will enable patients to receive high quality care.

“We acknowledge the trust’s new leadership team has made progress in addressing long-running issues around A&E care. However, there is still much work to be done before the trust can be said to be consistently providing patients with satisfactory emergency care and is being run effectively.

“We will be monitoring the trust’s progress closely and will not hesitate to take further regulatory action if required.”

Details of the regulator’s demands comes just over a week after David Sissling, the former head of NHS Wales began in his new role as the trust’s chief executive.