Watchdog criticism leads A&E safety improvements

A hospital emergency department, criticised by the health watchdog, has already taken steps to improve, its bosses have said.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital highlighted safety issues at the hospital's A&E, including that patients were able to harm themselves with items from the department.

It re-rated the urgent and emergency care at the hospital as "requires improvement" following an inspection in July.

The hospital's chief nursing officer Julie Dawes said new facilities had already opened to improve care for patients with mental health conditions.

The CQC said inspectors found patients "weren't always receiving care in a safe environment", with people experiencing mental heath crises particularly at risk.

The report highlighted exposed pipework, accessible oxygen tubing that posed a ligature risk, and unlocked rooms containing sharp equipment.

When the report was released, Catherine Campbell, CQC's deputy director of operations in Hampshire, said: "Despite incidents in which people had used items within the department to harm themselves, the service hadn't taken effective action to reduce these risks."

Speaking to the BBC, Dawes apologised to patients and said the CQC findings had been "clearly very disappointing"

She said steps taken so far to help improve care for mental health patients included a new safe room in the department's paediatric unit, with another due to open in the adult section and plans for another two suites elsewhere on the site.

"We have been working extremely hard to make the improvements required - a lot of things have already happened and we are in a different place."

"We've put a lot of extra training in and our mandatory training compliance is now a lot better than when the CQC visited.

"The team have been amazing - absolutely fantastic at responding to some of the improvements required," she added.

The CQC report had praised staff for "kind and compassionate care" and the overall rating for the hospital remained as good.

A new hospital is currently planned for north and mid-Hampshire, as is a major refurbishment at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

A recent National Audit office suggested the rebuild would not start until 2039 and it would not open until 2045.

You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.