Hospital leadership needs to improve, says watchdog
Sue Gwyne/Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS TrustLeadership at a hospital trust requires improvement, inspectors from a health watchdog have said.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust covers Essex and Hertfordshire and provides services to Harlow, Epping, Bishop's Stortford, Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne local authorities.
Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited the trust in January and had concerns about how well-led it was, including staff not wishing to speak out about changes. However, the CQC acknowledged improvements had been made.
The trust said the report was a "balanced assessment" and it acknowledged "the need to respond with clear, sustained action".
The CQC gave the trust a rating of requires improvement while looking at how well-led it was.
Sarah Ivory-Donnelly, CQC's deputy director of hospitals in the East of England, said: "During our inspection at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, we found that leaders had clear ambition and the trust had a well-articulated strategy.
"However, these were yet to be fully embedded across the organisation to create a positive culture, improved staff experience and delivery of better care for people."
She said a number of staff had concerns about recent restructuring and did not feel able to speak up, or if they did, they felt their concerns were not acted on.
"When staff don't feel safe to speak up, opportunities to learn and stop poor care from happening again can be missed, which puts people's safety at risk," Ivory-Donnelly said.
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However, the report also highlighted "areas of strength".
"Leaders had made real improvements since our last inspection [in July 2021] through significant changes to the board, and stakeholders described the trust's leadership as open, honest and transparent," she said.
"We have told leaders at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust where improvements are needed and recognise that they have been responsive to these concerns and have taken actions, we will continue to monitor the trust closely to ensure this happens."
Thom Lafferty, chief executive of the trust, said: "We fully acknowledge the findings of the well-led report and the areas where we must improve.
"The report is clear about the work still needed on culture, governance, speaking up, learning and the consistency of inpatient care, and we are responding with clear, sustained action.
"We are not yet where we want to be in every area. Our focus now is on embedding improvement, acting on feedback, and making sure every patient feels informed, involved, listened to and supported."
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