Medway Maritime Hospital

On this page

• Overview
• Kindness, compassion and dignity
• Treating people as individuals
• Independence, choice and control
• Responding to people’s immediate needs
• Workforce wellbeing and enablement

We assessed a limited number of quality statements in the caring key question and found areas of concern. The scores for these areas have been combined with scores based on the rating from the last inspection, which was good. The service did not always treat people with kindness, empathy and compassion and did not always respect their privacy and dignity.

This service scored 62 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The service did not protect the privacy and dignity of patients. In the 6 months prior to our assessment, we received information from 21 patients or relatives about their experiences in ED. Eleven of these said they had seen patients’ privacy and dignity not being protected. Feedback included: “Corridor care, it is horrible and a disgusting level of care that is being provided. There are multiple people lying on floors and elderly people in beds who haven’t even been given their dignity and respect, they have no blankets.” and “Elderly lady had to wait in the emergency department corridor due to lack of beds. No privacy or dignity, screen pulled round her to use bedpan, nowhere for her to wash or change clothing. Food given but no table to put food on and staff had no time to support with giving fluids.” Our review of the Friends and Family Test (FFT) results from 1 December 2023 to 28 February 2024 showed there were many patients who had a poor experience of being accommodated in corridors and other undesignated care areas. There were 23 comments that specifically mentioned patients who were accommodated in corridor areas who did not have their privacy and dignity protected. The percentage of patients who were positive about their overall experience ranged from 64.7% to 69.2%, this was below the Trust target of 85%. The report contained positive and negative comments about staff attitude, clinical treatment, communication and waiting times. If a patient was seen in a reasonable timeframe, they appeared more likely to provide positive comments compared to those who experienced long waits. The response rate ranged between 7.6% and 10%, which was significantly lower than the Trust target of 45%. On the day of the on-site assessment most patients described staff as caring and compassionate, However, some patients described a poor experience of staff attitude. One patient described staff as having robotic empathy and compassion and lacking in communication skills.

From 16 September 2023 to 3 April 2024, we received information of concern from 15 members of staff, who told us about the practice of corridor care which resulted in patients not having their privacy and dignity protected. Their concerns and comments included, “Frail, bed-bound patients had been told to soil themselves because there were not enough staff to take them to the toilet.”, “Patients stranded in ED for 50 hours or more, with no access to wash facilities.” , “There was a lack of pillows and blankets for patients, including those located on trolleys close to the ambulance entrance.”, and “Patients were left in their soiled clothing, and medications not given.” Staff working on the day of the on-site assessment expressed concern they were not able to protect the dignity and privacy of patients. They described a lack of privacy for patients accommodated in the corridor, long waits for patients who needed assistance to go to the toilet, and a lack of privacy due to members of the public walking through the corridor. They also explained there was only 1 screen available to help support the privacy of patients in the corridor.

During the on-site assessment on 21 February 2024, we saw the privacy and dignity of patients was not always upheld. Patients who were accommodated on trolleys in the non-designated care areas of the corridor did not have any privacy curtains. We observed a patient sitting on a chair in the corridor. The patient told us they had been in the corridor for 55 hours and had asked staff if they could shower. They were told the department had no showers and told us they could only wash by splashing water on themselves using the sink in the toilet. A doctor had to examine a patient in the corridor. The doctor did not expose the patient, but the examination and consultation could be heard and seen by other patients. A patient accommodated in the corridor near the ambulance entrance said they were so cold they had to use their coat and had not been provided with any blankets. A patient was passing urine into a bottle with no privacy curtains.

We did not look at Treating people as individuals during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Independence, choice and control during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Responding to people’s immediate needs during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.

We did not look at Workforce wellbeing and enablement during this assessment. The score for this quality statement is based on the previous rating for Caring.