Top nurse appointed to help turn around Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Leading nurse Elaine Inglesby-Burke has been announced as the new chief nurse at Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust in the wake of a damning inspection report.

Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust was rated inadequate following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which found a 'significant' shortage of nurses and midwives, particularly in critical care, paediatrics and maternity.

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust nursing director and deputy chief executive Ms Inglesby-Burke has taken on the role of chief nurse at Penninne as part of a new executive team to drive up standards at the trust. She will continue in her existing roles at Salford Royal.

Understaffed paediatric unit

Inspectors who visited the trust between 23 Feburary and 3 March this year found that nursing shortages meant that a paediatric unit was understaffed on over four out of five shifts.

A lack of nurses meant ten paediatric beds had to be closed across the trust. In addition, just one quarter (23.7%) of nurses were up to date with paediatric immediate life support training.

Standards set by the Intensive Care Society for nursing levels were not met in critical care, and staffing on the maternity ward did not meet Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guidance, according to the report.

High use of agency and bank nurses, particularly in surgical services, was also highlighted. The trust had an agency staff bill of £38.4 million in 2015/16.

Responding to the CQC report, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Sir David Dalton said improvement measures include £9.2 million to spend on staff and services.

Improvement plan in place

He said: 'The CQC report is holding up a mirror to the organisation and reflects very much what staff have been saying for some time on issues related to staffing pressures, inadequate systems, culture, leadership and resources.

'We have not waited for the publication of this report to put an improvement plan in place to support staff and patients. Our priority is to keep our services running safely and to ensure patients receive good safe treatment in a timely manner.

'We will not allow this organisation to run unsafe services. It is recognised that for this trust to make services safer and more reliable, it requires the support from our health and social care partners to provide over the next six months and to consider longer-term solutions for services across Greater Manchester.'

Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust CQC report