Interventions

Sometimes we carry out an intervention into a trust's services rather than a full investigation. This page gives an overview of our more recent interventions and explains why we decided to intervene rather than to investigate.

The interventions listed here may have links to relevant documents, including the summary of intervention, that explain in detail the decision for intervention rather than investigation.

Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust

In March 2008, we were alerted to concerns about the management of emergency medical dispatches at Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The previous May, a woman had died following a road traffic accident. It had taken 42 minutes for the first ambulance to arrive on the scene. Also, in 2006/07, the trust had "under-achieved" in its efforts to meet the national targets for responding to emergency calls, and in the annual health check had been scored "weak" both for quality of services and use of resources

Summary published: 20 August 2008

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust met just 13 of the 44 parts of the Government's core standards for better health in our annual health check of the NHS in 2006/07. This meant that it was rated "weak" for the quality of its services for the second year running. It was also rated  "weak" for the use of its financial resources. This was the poorest record of any of England's 394 NHS trusts in 2006/07.

Summary published: 9 April 2008

Bromley Primary Care Trust

In April 2007, a Healthcare Commission audit identified concerns about the safety and quality of the residential services for people with learning disabilities provided by Bromley Primary Care Trust (PCT). The chief executive of the trust approached our investigations team and requested help in examining these issues and ensuring that the trust was taking the action needed to address them.

Summary published: 3 December 2007. Read the:

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

In October 2007, we were alerted to concerns about deaths of patients following heart transplants at Papworth Hospital. These concerns had been raised by the trust itself. On 22 October it reported to the National Commissioning Group that seven of the 20 patients who received heart transplants since 1 January 2007 had died following surgery. Another patient was critically ill at the time and died later.

It was clear that there was a high level of risk to the safety of future transplant patients. The Commission's Chairman authorised an immediate review by the investigation team and a report to be prepared within two weeks.

Summary published: 19 November 2007. Read the:

Newham University Hospital NHS Trust

On 2 May 2007, Newham University Hospital NHS Trust alerted the Healthcare Commission to a recent incident in its maternity service. A large number of women had been referred to Newham Hospital for antenatal care, but they had not been booked into the system so had not received any care.

Senior staff within the maternity service had been made aware of a backlog building up in December 2006, but they did not monitor the actions to reduce it, or identify that it was increasing, until April 2007. By this time it was in excess of 800. The incident was reported to the trust's executive team, the strategic health authority and the Healthcare Commission. The trust took immediate action to try to contact all those women who had been referred but who were not booked into its antenatal service.

Summary published: 26 September 2007. Read the: