Hospital made patients "wait two months to have their hair washed"

Hospital patients had to wear incontinence pads overnight and wait two months to have their hair washed because hospital staff were too busy to help them, an inquiry by NHS inspectors has concluded.

A&E patients were also being treated in corridors and in chairs because the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich, south-east London, was under such pressure when the Care Quality Commission (CQC) arrived on an unannounced visit in June.

The watchdog said that the hospital “requires improvement” after encountering a series of problems, including the deterioration of a patient with the deadly infection sepsis during their inspection because of inadequate monitoring.

Some staff were also observed speaking “sharply” and with a lack of kindness to patients, and children attending the A&E were not always given the full range of checks they needed. Patients also faced long waits to receive A&E care.

“This deeply shocking case is yet another example of a health service stretched to breaking point due to underfunding by the Conservatives,” said the shadow health minister Justin Madders.

The CQC’s report into the hospital’s A&E and acute medical units said: “We spoke with a patient on ward 18 who told us they had repeatedly asked staff for a bath or shower and had been told it wasn’t their job to provide this. Two other patients on this ward told us they would like to have their hair washed, but staff told them they were too busy.

“The nurse in charge … said staff were often too busy to provide personal care and this meant some patients could go up to two months without having their hair washed,” it added.

“In the acute medical unit one patient told us they had to use pads for incontinence because staff were too busy to help them use a commode. They said they felt very embarrassed because it meant they went to sleep with dirty pads. The nurse in charge … said patients were encouraged to wear pads because there were not enough staff for the volume of patients who would use commodes.”

Ministers’ “incompetent” decision in 2010 to cut the number of nurse training places had helped create the staff shortages that are common across the NHS, Madders said. “Nurses have been consistently saying for several years that they are so stretched they often find they are unable to complete all the tasks on their shift.”

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS trust, which runs the hospital, said: “We welcome the CQC’s report. The report does note that we have made progress since the last CQC inspection in February 2013, and we are pleased that our staff received a rating of ‘good’ for providing a caring, kind, and compassionate service.

“We recognise there is more to do and we have a detailed programme of improvements to our emergency pathway, and care in our wards,” it added.

The findings emerged as the Commons health select committee warned that hospitals could struggle to cope in the face of a winter that will be “substantially more difficult” than last year’s.

So many hospitals now fail to meet the target of treating 95% of emergency patients within four hours that patient safety is at risk, the cross-party group of MPs warned in a report on how winter pressures affect A&E units.

“The winter of 2015-16 was mild and the flu vaccine worked. We heard of a fear amongst leaders of acute NHS trusts that 2016-17 could be substantially more difficult,” the report said.

Philip Dunne, the health minister, said: “The NHS is better prepared for winter than ever before, with plans in place to help hospitals cope with additional demand – and the NHS is performing well despite the pressure of an ageing population, with nine out of 10 people seen in A&E within four hours.”

Hospital made patients "wait two months to have their hair washed"