Care Quality Commission spot check for Norfolk hospital

All national standards of nursing care, patient safety and staffing at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn are now being met, according to a spot check by a health watchdog.

But record keeping needs to be addressed to fully protect patients from 'inappropriate care'.

An updated review from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been published following a visit in August which identified a number of issues to be addressed by the hospital.

Inspectors made a recent check as a follow-up to the original visit where issues were identified around medicines management, privacy and dignity and record-keeping.

During their recent visit the CQC inspectors said they noted many 'complimentary' and positive comments from patients and visitors during their tour of the wards.

But further work on record keeping is required by the hospital before it has complied with all the criteria.

'People are not adequately protected from the risk of receiving unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment because records are sometimes incomplete, inaccurate or misleading, said the report.

The hospital's director of nursing, Gwyneth Wilson, said: 'This was a follow-up visit and we are really pleased that we are now compliant in the areas where concerns were raised previously. However, we acknowledge that we still have work to do around record-keeping.

'Following the previous visit all the staff at the QEH worked hard to change processes and practices, to ensure we have protected meal times and to make sure that patients are helped with their meals. I am delighted that all our hard work has been recognised by the CQC.

'We now have to undertake more work around record-keeping and we plan to implement brand new documentation.'

The CQC report said: 'Patients told us they were treated with respect and dignity at all times. They spoke positively about staff and described them as 'pleasant' and 'good'.

'Visitors were also complimentary about the staff and told us that they were well-informed about the progress of patients they visited.

Patients told inspectors that staff explained their care, treatment and progress in a way they could understand. They were happy with the care they received and said that, on the whole, they were having their needs met.

A few patients, however, felt that staff were not very helpful and were not approachable because they were so busy.

The CQC added: 'Patients also told us that they were given a choice of food and that they received appropriate support to eat and drink. They said that staff knew which people required help with their meals.

'All of the patients we spoke with were very complimentary about how their medicines were managed.'

Patients also told the inspectors that they received medicines on time and were not kept waiting for pain relieving medicine or night-time medication.

However, the CQC said that further work was needed to improve record-keeping before the Trust was fully compliant with a CQC standard relating to management issues.