Fifteen serious incidents at KGH in three months

Kettering General Hospital has had 15 serious patient safety incidents during the Covid-19 pandemic months.

A report about quality and safeguarding across the county’s health providers, which will be presented to the Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group on Tuesday (July 21), shows that the acute hospital in Rothwell Road has had by far the most serious incidents between April and June this year.

It says six of the incidents have related to slips, trips and falls at the care setting which - like all acute hospitals across the country - has had to drastically change its procedure to look after coronavirus patients.

In the past four months 217 patients have died at the hospital from the contagion.

The hospital, which is rated as requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission, says the increase in reported serious incidents is down to a method it is using to report incidents.

Altogether 35 serious incidents have been reported at healthcare settings in the first quarter of this year, which runs from April. This figure includes one incident at KGH that has been downgraded as there were originally 16 incidents. There were seven at Northampton General Hospital, five at Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust and three at East Midlands Ambulance Service.

When a serious incident is reported it has to be investigated and recommendations for learning are shared.

Kettering General Hospital’s director of nursing and quality, Leanne Hackshall, said: “Patient safety is our top priority and we have a very strong commitment to investigating any occasions where things have gone wrong.

“Our reported serious incident figures have increased and we have analysed why – something we would always do routinely as part of our safety monitoring systems.

“This shows the increase is mostly because we are reporting more incidents classed as ‘moderate’ rather than just those classed as ‘severe’ as serious incidents.

“While this may increase the numbers of cases investigated we feel it is important to be thorough and we intend to maintain this commitment and encourage a strong reporting culture with our staff.

“The analysis also shows there has been no significant increase in any one area of the trust.

“Slips, trips and falls are often the most common serious incidents recorded and we are revisiting the way that we assess and mitigate this risk to see if we can further reduce the numbers of falls.”

A spokesman for NHS Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group said: “We work closely with our local trusts and other providers to review and monitor all aspects of safety and ensure robust systems are in place to protect patients.

“Gathering information on serious incidents is a key part of this work. These are routinely investigated by providers and the learning is shared countywide to help drive improvements in the safety and quality of care.”

In total 106 serious incidents were recorded in Northamptonshire NHS settings in 2019/20 - with Northampton General Hospital reporting the most at 46 and the Kettering General Hospital reporting 29 in those 12 months.

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