Further 'urgent' enforcement action taken against Shropshire NHS trust
A health watchdog has taken further urgent enforcement action against the trust running Shropshire's two main hospitals.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) again last month.
They looked at maternity services and the emergency departments run by the trust, which looks after Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
The CQC has confirmed it has now taken further urgent action with regard to the emergency departments, including paediatrics.
A spokeswoman for the CQC said: "CQC inspected the maternity and emergency department services at SaTH in April.
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"As a result we took further urgent action with regard to emergency department care, including paediatrics.
"We are unable to give further details at this time but will report on our findings shortly.
"All CQC’s action is open to appeal. We are monitoring the trust closely and liaising with NHS Improvement and NHS England.”
It comes as health bosses were told on Wednesday that improvements have been made in maternity services at the trust.
Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s governing body was told the CQC carried out its inspection on April 15.
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Dawn Clarke, Shropshire CCG’s director of nursing, quality and patient experience, said health chiefs were awaiting the report but initial feedback suggested there had been some improvement in the maternity department.
Sath was placed into special measures last year and received the lowest overall rating from the CQC.
It has since developed a quality improvement plan to address the findings of the CQC’s inspection.
Last month, chief executive of the trust, Simon Wright, said it was ‘progressing really well’ and had been engaging with staff, talking about the ‘root causes’ of issues so they can be addressed.
He said moving out of special measures would never be easy but the trust was on target for its trajectory for improvement.
A report to SaTH's board last month said the trust was 'now in a position to formally conclude the plan development phase and move fully into the delivery phase'.
It said five steering groups would be responsible for the development and oversight of delivery of the improvement plans to address each issue.
The groups will monitor women and children's services, scheduled care, unscheduled care, workforce and leadership – each chaired by an accountable executive.
Leadership and the safety of services were both rated 'inadequate' by the CQC last year, while the watchdog said the trust needs to make improvements in how effective and responsive its services are.
It was rated 'good' for whether services were caring.
