Royal Cornwall health trust placed in special measures after deaths

A health trust has been placed in special measures after patients who waited too long for treatment died and others went blind.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust was found to be failing across several departments, including surgery, maternity and cardiology.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said patients were waiting too long for treatment and suffering harm as a result and operations were cancelled, including for cancer.

They also determined that patients with sepsis did not receive antibiotics in time and a sewage problem in a bathroom was not dealt with for more than three years.

More than 550 patients in cardiology suffered delays while waiting for appointments, a CQC inspection report said.

The inspectors said: "We were informed of two patients who had died of cardiac related causes while delayed on the waiting list.

"While it is not possible to say the deaths were directly linked to the delay, the trust reported it was highly likely."

The Royal Cornwall trust has hospitals in Penzance, Hayle, Truro and St Austell.

More than 1,200 patients at the trust were waiting for treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration at the time of the CQC inspection.

This delay to treatment had led to at least four patients suffering "partial loss of vision or complete blindness as a result".

There were problems reported in cancer treatment, sepsis and maternity and the trust was rated inadequate in safety, surgery, maternity and gynaecology and outpatients and diagnostic imaging.

The CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: "The people of Cornwall are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.

"During this inspection and in our previous visits to the Royal Cornwall Hospital we have found persistent evidence of care that falls below those standards.

"I am concerned that the management systems to assess, monitor, and deal with risks to patients have not been operating effectively and the Board has not had the oversight that is required."

Kathy Byrne, chief executive of the trust, said: "We take the CQC report very seriously and I want to apologise to any patient who has waited too long for treatment or not received the very best care.

"We have now established a stable senior leadership team and we want good clinical leadership to be at the heart of our quality improvement programme.

"Everyone who works in our hospitals is committed to making the changes our local community and regulators want to see."

(c) Sky News 2017: Royal Cornwall health trust placed in special measures after deaths