Lincoln County Hospital is not meeting a high enough standard when dispensing medicine to patients, according to a new report.
The report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was part of a routine visit to the hospital, in which three different wards, including elderly care, were inspected.
While patients left positive comments about the overall service and management of Lincoln County Hospital, the CQC heard and saw evidence that medicine needs were not always met.
In some cases, patients were not clearly talked through their “take-home” medicines after discharge, with a few even incorrectly labelled.
Nurses had not signed the medicine charts to note when it had been taken, and occasionally medicines were out of stock.
In one case, a medicine being out of stock meant a patient went without antibiotic doses for three days, meaning the infection wasn’t fully treated.
Though on other wards, medicines were very rarely out of stock, meaning patients had access to medicine instantly.
The CQC found that people on one elderly care ward received their medicines at the right times but there was one example of a patient being confused when to take their medicine.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust have a self-medication policy, meaning patients are encouraged to be responsible for taking their own medication if they are able to while in hospital and once discharged.
One patient, taking different tablets with a little help from a nurse, was unclear when was best to take the medicine, due to being given differing advice by a GP and the nurse.
ULHT now has 14 days to respond to the report with the steps it will take to improve the service.
However, ULHT have welcomed the CQC findings, and are already working to improve its medicine facilities.
“We welcome the latest report from the CQC which follows a visit to Lincoln County Hospital in April.
“We are pleased that the report reflects areas where medicines are managed appropriately but our aim is to provide consistently high standards of care across all our wards and departments and we recognise there is more to be done.
“In December 2011 we introduced a new programme called the Safety and Quality Dashboard which allows us to monitor and assess our clinical services.
“This enables us to identify areas where improvements can be made. For example, from January to June 2012 we reported a 22.5% increase in medicines delivered on time at Lincoln County hospital and work is continuing to increase this further.
“We have also established a Medicines Safety Group and Medicines Management Committee to review processes and ensure best practice is applied across the Trust.
“We introduced an e-learning medicines management training programme and medicine safety points which are printed on small cards which individuals carry for reference.”
This report comes after the ULHT were required by the CQC to improve its discharge facilities and Clayton Ward earlier in the year. The Clayton Ward is set to close in the near future.
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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