England’s health and care system is overburdened, putting people at risk, according to a Care Quality Commission report.
The CQC annual report titled ‘The state of health care and adult social care in England 2020/21’ found a small percentage of services with warning signals of closed cultures continue to put individuals at danger.
The report defines closed cultures as ‘a poor culture that can lead to harm, including human rights breaches such as abuse’ where people are more likely to be at danger of purposeful or unintended injury when using these services.
It was found that maternity care is improving far too slowly, with ongoing problems involving workers lacking the necessary knowledge or skills, bad working relationships, and failing to learn from mistakes. Other issues include maternity services’ lack of interaction with neighbourhood women and their scant effort to increase fair access.
There are also worries about authorisation delays, which result in people being deprived of their liberties for longer than required or without the proper legal authority and protections in place.
Ombudsman chair Rob Behrens says: “We are seeing the perfect storm of a gridlocked system combining challenges in both access to care and in workforce provision. This is a breeding ground for mistakes in critical services. Failure in any part of the system can have catastrophic effects on patient care.
“We know that the healthcare sector and those who work in it arouse understanding, respect and support, but patients and their families should also know they have the right to complain and to be listened to when mistakes are made. This is particularly important for those most disadvantaged in society whose voices are unheard. The NHS must embrace a learning culture to avoid repeatedly making the same mistakes and to improve services for the future.”
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