Special measures for UK hospital after damning report

London: The first hospital to be run by a private firm has been put into special measures following a damning report by the NHS watchdog.

Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS trust, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, was rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission, which gave it the lowest ever score for patient care.

Hours before the report was published, Circle, the firm which has run the hospital since February 2012, announced it was pulling out.

Last night there were fears that the hospital was the victim of a stitch-up by opponents of private enterprise in the NHS.

The decision by Circle and the CQC report are major blows to the Government which is aiming to increase the private sector’s involvement in the NHS to improve services. The hospital had been hailed as a “miracle cure” for the NHS — and the report flies in the face of glowing patient surveys and a recent award for best NHS trust for patient care.

Circle’s withdrawal triggered a political row, with Labour blaming the Conservatives for handing the contract to the firm despite flaws in its business plans. The Tories pointed out it was Labour and shadow health secretary Andy Burnham who had decided Hinchingbrooke should be run by a private firm. As health secretary, he put the contract out to tender in 2009 when the hospital’s financial failures were so bad that it was threatened with closure.

The CQC report found serious failings in the AandE unit and warned it is “potentially unsafe” for children due to a lack of specialist doctors and nurses.

Crucially, the watchdog rated it ‘inadequate’ for caring — the lowest score so far given to a trust.

The CQC also warned that food, drink and call bells were being left out of patients’ reach, and some were denied pain relief.

Circle is challenging the findings and believes it has been judged unfairly as part of a tougher, new inspection system. The Mail also understands that at least one of the 35 inspectors is a member of campaign group Keep Our NHS Public and may have been unfairly critical.

But the damning report was the final straw for Circle which also blamed funding problems and the ongoing AandE crisis for its decision to pull out of the deal.

The firm said the local group of GPs, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, had slashed its budget by 6 per cent last year and imposed unfair financial penalties.

The CCG wanted to fine the hospital £5 million (Dh27.7 million) for apparently missing a series of targets on AandE, waiting times and cancelled operations, even though performance was far better than neighbouring trusts. The firm negotiated the penalty down to GBP1.3million but this year the CCG is threatening to fine it £2 million for missing AandE targets.

Hinchingbrooke had been one of the few hospitals to hit the AandE target of 95 per cent of patients treated within four hours. But in mid-December this began to slip when there was a sudden surge in attendances.

The CQC’s findings are at odds with an award given to the hospital in May for being the best trust in England for quality of care, by the data monitoring firm CHKS.

It has also performed consistently well in the ‘friends and family test’, a survey asking patients if they would recommend the hospital to loved ones. But Professor Sir Mike Richards, the CQC’s chief inspector, said there were “a number of serious concerns, surrounding staffing and risks to patient safety, particularly in the AandE department and medical care”.

“There were substantial and frequent staff shortages in the AandE department,” he said. “There were a number of other areas of concern, some related to the way in which the trust is led and run.”

He added: “Where hospitals are failing to promote good care, we will say so, regardless of who owns and runs them. They are not a judgement on the role of the private sector in the NHS or on franchise arrangements.”

Hinchingbrooke will be handed over to the NHS Trust Development Authority — a watchdog that will discuss urgent improvements with managers. One option would be to put the contract out to tender to other private firms. Alternatively, it could be taken over by the neighbouring and much larger Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust — which could see it lose AandE and maternity services.

Burnham said: “Patients who rely on Hinchingbrooke will be worried ministers must provide urgent reassurance and set out a plan to ensure the continuity of services It was the decision of the Coalition in November 2011 to appoint Circle and they must take responsibility for this mess.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote on Twitter: “Disappointing news on Hinchingbrooke, but Andy Burnham must stop playing politics — he signed off decision to allow private sector operator.”