Kettering General Hospital: Skylark ward shows improvement

An inadequate ward accused of failing children has shown improvement, according to a care regulator's report.

Kettering General Hospital (KGH) in Northamptonshire was warned over its children's and young people's services following an inspection in December.

A new Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in April, which did not re-rate the service, found the demands of that warning notice had been met.

The hospital trust's chief executive said she was "extremely proud".

Since the BBC's first report in February that highlighted concerns of parents with children who died or became seriously ill at KGH, dozens more families came forward.

In December, the CQC inspected the paediatric assessment unit Skylark ward and the neonatal unit after hearing concerns about safety, and went on to rate children's and young people's services "inadequate" - the lowest possible grading.

Inspectors' worries included sepsis treatment, staff numbers, dirt levels and not having an "open culture" where concerns could be raised without fear.

In February, hospital board papers stated there was a "significant risk that the trust has the potential to lose its paediatric services, if it fails to make the improvements required and give the assurances needed to keep children safe".

The fresh CQC inspection in April came six days after its previous report became public.

Among the findings in the children's and young people's services were that "staff identified and quickly acted upon" those at "risk of deterioration".

Inspectors found improvements in the monitoring of fluids and in the "timeliness of sepsis screens being completed and treatment being administered".

However, they said documentation "was not always fully completed" regarding the actions staff had taken to assess and treat patients at risk of sepsis.

Inspectors said: "There continued to be a high but reducing vacancy rate for registered nursing staff on Skylark ward, however, there were effective mitigations in place to maintain safe staffing levels. Managers reduced the number of beds available to maintain safe staffing levels."

They found processes in place for improvements to be made after incidents and said patients felt their children were safe.

Inspectors also found improvements in urgent and emergency care, including in the completion of safeguarding checklists and the timeliness of observations. They added "the use of facilities and premises had improved to keep people safe".

The chief executive of Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Deborah Needham, said: "We are extremely proud of the teams for the hard work that has gone into making and embedding improvements across the services, as noted by the CQC inspectors.

"The improvements that have been highlighted are testament to their dedication to improving patient care.

"Our priority is providing the best patient care possible, and we are delighted that those patients and families, who spoke to the CQC, reflected positively about the care they were receiving.

"We realise that we have not always got this right, and as I have previously said, I am truly sorry for this.

"I would like to assure our patients and families that we are fully committed to further improving our children's services and ensuring the changes that we make are sustained."

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