Hospitals serving patients across East Lancashire will be investigated in the wake of a national health scandal.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Royal Blackburn Hospital, Burnley General Hospital, Accrington Victoria Hospital, Pendle Community Hospital and Clitheroe Community Hospital, has been named as one of five trusts in the country with unusually high mortality rates.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced the inquiries following the publication of the Francis Report – which exposed hundreds of needless deaths at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust between 2005 and 2009 after ‘appalling’ failures by medical staff, managers and outside bodies.
The five hospitals now being inspected by health chief Sir Bruce Keogh were chosen because they had the worst excess death rates for two successive years to 2012.
In a statement Mark Brearley, chief executive at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said the trust welcomed the recommendations of the Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry and will be looking closely at how they can underpin our services.
He said: "We have been named as one of five Trusts in the country who present in the “higher than expected” band in the Summary Hospital Mortality Indicator. This indicator is one of a number of mortality indicators along with the more commonly used Hospital Standard Mortality Ratio. We take this very seriously and we welcome the independent review by the NHS Commissioning Board Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh.
“The Trust has a mortality steering group that comprises of senior clinicians including the Medical Director and Deputy Medical Director who is also the chair of the Patient Safety Group who are looking at the indices very carefully and will use them to identify where we can focus efforts to improve clinical practice and care.
“We have met with the NHS Trust Development Agency as part of our assessment process for suitability to become a Foundation Trust. This robust process scrutinises and measures us against governance, quality and finance and they have now approved us to proceed to assessment by Monitor, the regulator for NHS Foundation Trusts.”
Kathy McLean, NHS Trust Development Agency Medical Director, said East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust had undergone a “remarkable turnaround” for a trust that only five years ago was struggling.
She added: “The quality of care in the trust has improved significantly. However, it has continued to receive a low score on its mortality rates.
‘We were assured that the trust was on a downward trend for its mortality rates having worked hard on improvements, including listening to feedback from patients and their families, as well as receiving assurance from external bodies.
“If at any time we believe the trust is failing to deliver better mortality rates and high quality care, we can withdraw our approval to Monitor.”
