Yeovil paediatric problems revealed
The release of the full CQC report into Yeovil District Hospital's paediatric service is published today. It is truly shocking. Yet despite failings in leadership, there is no apology from the leaders
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This morning the CQC have published their full report into the inspection of Yeovil paediatric services earlier this year, with its inevitable consequences for the maternity unit too. As a result the Special Care Baby Unit and inpatient maternity services at YDH are now closed with a promise that this is only temporary.
The CQC report is to some extent historic in as much as the Inspection took place on 13 January 2025 and much has happened since then.
Specifically, as we reported exclusively on 16 May (you can read our report here) Somerset NHS Foundation Trust moved from being quite sure they knew how to solve the problems at their board meeting of 6 May, to shutting the service down completely for at least 6 months on 13 May.
The more surprising decision having read the full CQC report, is that they thought the service could be kept open and that they were on top of things on 6 May.
Then inspectors rated the service Inadequate for being “Safe” and for being “Well Led”. The service was rated as “Requires Improvement” for being Effective. No aspects of it were deemed good or outstanding.
an insufficient number of medical staff
Let’s start by taking a look at the summary paragraph: “In our assessment of the Children and Young People service we found a lack of a strong learning culture and there was an insufficient number of medical staff. Consultant paediatricians did not consistently lead the required number of medical handovers, and not all acutely admitted children were seen by a consultant within the expected timeframe. Mandatory training compliance for paediatric life support and safeguarding was below target…”