Rehman Chishti – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rehman Chishti on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 10 June 2014, Official Report, column 896W, on hospitals, what progress his Department has made at Medway NHS Trust since it was placed in special measures in 2013.

Jane Ellison

Medway was recently re-inspected by the Chief Inspector, who will be publishing the results of the re-inspection shortly alongside his recommendation as to whether the foundation trust has made sufficient improvement to exit the regime.

The Trust is making good progress in the majority of areas reviewed in 2013 by the Keogh team. However, since the Keogh review the Trust has received warning notices from the Care Quality Commission in relation to its Maternity services (October 2013) and Emergency services (March 2014) indicating continuing quality concerns in other areas.

Since the Keogh review the Trust has created 29 additional medical posts and 115 additional nurse and nurse support staff posts. It has struggled to recruit sufficient numbers to these posts with the result that it remains highly reliant on locum and agency staff.