Earlier this year the Trusted to Care report into two hospitals
in the Abertawe and Bro Morganwg area reveal matters of
real and deep concern in the way some
elderly people in some parts of those hospitals were receiving what we would
all
like to see from them receive. There are some
deep rooted issues which the report points to which are being
worked through by the local health board and by colleagues here in the Welsh
Government
but they were four very immediate
issues in the direct care of patients in those two hospitals
which I think we needed to seek assurances
were not being replicated in other parts of the NHS here
in Wales. Now the report by Professor Andrews was very clear
but while this care was very often directly provided by nurses the
responsibility for what had gone wrong was shared by
others too. It was shared by pharmacist's, it was shared by
doctors and it was shared by hospital managers
as well. Now in order to seek the assurances that we needed we set up in train
a spot check program across the whole of
Wales we put up together a team people that represented
all those interests and we've had it
overseen by three very senior people
representing all those strands so Professor Andrews
herself has been involved to make sure that the nursing dimension was fully
covered
Professor Phil Routledge who chairs the All Wales Medicine Strategy Group
has represented the interests of pharmacy clinicians
and Sir Ian Carutthers a former very senior administrator
in the English NHS has overseen the process to make sure that
the contribution of senior managers is captured in all of this as well.
So in June and July of this year
our team of inspectors visited 20 hospitals across Wales
and seventy wards in those hospital
they arrived unannounced and they concentrated on the four key
areas that the Trusted to Care reports had identified.
They talked to patients, they talked to staff
they were able to go wherever they wanted to go
and they have produced a very comprehensive set of reports
but I think that provides us with a real sense of assurance
about how the care of older people is being discharged
in our acute hospitals in Wales. In
three of the four areas they broadly report
that the system that we have works well. We can be confident that the way we do
things
in Wales provides a high level of care
to those people who are dependent upon the care that we provide.
In medicines management there were issues that emerged
in many places in Wales they were generally to do with the physical conditions
in which medicines are stored and the way they are
administered wherever those issues were raised they were reported immediately to
senior staff
at the hospital and those matters began to receive attention
from the very outset
Now under leadership of the Chief Pharmaceutical
Officer of Wales Professor Roger Walker
we have a task and finish group to make sure that
we grip this issue and bring about the necessary
improvements right across the Welsh NHS
that in turn reports to a new board
jointly chaired by the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Nursing
Officer to make sure that we learn everything there is to be learnt from
the Trusted to Care
experience and that we go on providing
care for older people in our general
hospitals of a sort and a standard
that we would want for ourselves and which would make us proud of
the work the service provides. I come away from this whole
experience heartened by the work that the spot checks teams have
done confirmed in my belief
that the primary motivation of those people who work
in looking after older people in Wales
is one of careful and compassionate
care driven along by a sense
of real professionalism and pride. Where things go wrong
we are determined to respond to those things to take them seriously
as we can to learn everything we can from that
then to put measures in place
but go on giving us and those people who rely on our services
a confidence that everything is as it needs to be
in the Welsh NHS.