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Challenging questions asked in CQC report

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has been asked some very challenging questions in a report released today following the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in March this year.

The report praises the caring nature of the hospital staff saying “Staff were kind and caring, with a compassionate attitude. They were committed to providing high quality care.” This was reflected at all three hospitals: the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate and the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury.

However the report also contained many criticisms of the Trust for example the report also concluded that there were insufficient numbers of appropriately trained staff across all three hospitals, that staff engagement was poor and that patients experienced long waiting times for appointments. In addition it required the Trust to make improvements to its environment.

Responding to the report the Chief Executive Stuart Bain said “Much of what is in the report we have already recognised and we are working to address.

Following a staffing review, we have invested an additional £2.9 million to recruit 69 nurses where shortages exist (55 of these have been recruited already). We have also recently appointed an additional four general surgeons and will be recruiting a further three surgeons very shortly.

We identified the need to improve our appointment system some time ago and have just completed a public consultation on our outpatient services that will allow us to make improvements to the services we offer patients. New appointment booking systems, more flexible appointments, and an investment of £28 million in improved facilities including a new hospital in Dover will start to address these issues.

He added “The report does recognise the committed and caring nature of our staff of which we can be very proud. Our task as leaders of the organisation is now to work with our staff and our partners including the Clinical Commissioning Groups to address the issues that have been raised and ensure we provide the residents of east Kent with high quality health care.”

13 August 2014

Questions or concerns

We realise you may have concerns after the publication of the CQC report. We would like to reassure you that your hospital appointments are unaffected and we urge you to attend as normal. If you have any questions relating to your appointment, please speak to the clinical staff when you attend.

Please take a look at the Question and Answers section which we hope will provide you with helpful information.

If you have any specific questions relating to the CQC report which are not answered, please phone our dedicated patient hotline on:

Tel: 01233 616121

alternatively, you can Tweet us your questions @askEKHUFT