Inspectors have raised fears for patient safety after an accident and emergency unit at a Glasgow hospital was found “often operating at over 250 per cent capacity”.
A report published by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) warned that fundamental care needs were not being met at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
The watchdog visited the hospital in April and observed a patient languishing in A&E for more than seven hours without being offered food, drink or pain relief.
An inspector also needed to intervene when a patient “almost fell off a trolley” beside a nursing station in the department. The incidents triggered a wider inspection of the hospital in June.
‘Patients falling from trollies’
The HIS report disclosed details of both visits and revealed that 11 requirements had been placed on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
The initial visit resulted in inspectors raising “significant concerns in relation to patient safety and the potential impact of overcrowding on fire evacuation safety”.
These included a lack of co-ordination within the nursing team that resulted in some patients being discovered in the department who were “thought to have left prior to being reviewed”, as well as “misidentified patients”, where tests needed to be repeated, and “patients falling from trollies”.
The report revealed how several patients in A&E had asked inspectors for help accessing food and drink as well as updates about their care. It added: “We also identified incidents where patients who were waiting in corridors had become critically unwell.”
At the time of both inspections, the hospital was operating at 96 per cent bed capacity – above the safe bed occupancy level of less than 85 per cent recommended by both the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
The report revealed that “evidence submitted by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde demonstrated that the department was often operating at over 250 per cent capacity”.
Health board responded ‘promptly’
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said measures were put in place to deal with concerns after the April inspection. These included allocating a nurse and two healthcare support workers to care for patients in corridors.
HIS said that its second inspection found that “although the wards and emergency department were busy, patients appeared well cared for”.
Donna Maclean, the chief inspector at HIS, said the health board responded “promptly” to concerns raised after the initial inspection.
“They provided assurance that immediate key actions had been put in place to improve patient safety within the department,” she added. “We revisited the emergency department as part of the subsequent inspection and saw that significant improvements had been introduced to enhance patient safety and care.”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it recognised that “some aspects of care and standards weren’t what they should have been, and we have taken the report findings very seriously.”
A spokesman added: “Immediate improvements were made following the inspection, and the inspection in June 2024 recognised the positive and sustained impact of these actions.
“We can confirm that nine out of the 11 requirements published in the report have been completed, with the remaining two on track to be complete by the end of December 2024.”
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