An NHS Trust has been warned over filthy maternity wards and uncaring staff. Whipps Cross Hospital has been issued with three formal warnings after inspectors found filthy maternity wards, water placed out of the reach of elderly patients and uncaring staff who were sarcastic to bleeding mothers in pain.
Offensive waste was overflowing from bins, trolleys were covered in blood, and staff did not wash their hands enough, putting babies, mothers and visitors at risk of infection.
Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, east London has been ordered to make “urgent improvements” after failing to meet 10 of 16 essential hospital standards, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said.
On the labour wards, the theatre sluice pipe had previously leaked onto the floor. “We saw visible dried stains on that sluice pipe and floor.”
Rooms, trolleys, theatres sluices and communal bays were filthy.
“We saw that there was dust behind the furniture in the rooms, blood stains on the disposable curtains and bodily fluid stains on the wall near the beds. We saw in some rooms that offensive waste was overflowing from the bin.”
Regrettably, the findings are not that uncommon in the ‘new’ NHS. Excuses of overwork and lack of resources inevitably come to the fore, but the problem has at its heart a lack of care, of waste producers, ancillary and support staff, infection control teams, and managers. Each will blame each other, and seek to rise above the problem to criticise others when CQC or other inspectors make an unannounced inspection and find standards falling below that which is required.
Always, there are apologies and promises to make certain that such failings are addressed, never to happen again.
Do we believe those promises? Do we really?
I don’t.