Junior doctors are often left alone to treat emergency patients in a busy casualty department, putting them at "significant risk", a report has revealed.
The report, by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), has said patients at Colchester General Hospital may not be getting the best treatment available because junior and inexperienced doctors are left alone during emergency care.
The report into the care offered by the Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust has been carried out as part of a rolling programme, which will assess every NHS Trust, health authority, primary care trust and local health group in England and Wales.
The report states: "There is evidence to suggest that junior doctors are not sufficiently supervised in emergency work, resulting in a significant risk."
Patient notes were also found to be unavailable to both doctors and nurses after 5pm. The report said information systems within the Trust must be improved.
However, the report has praised both the commitment of staff and the care given in stroke and maternity wards and found that security on maternity and children's wards had been improved.
The introduction of disinfectant hand gel dispensers on each ward designed to reduce the spread of infection was also highlighted for praise, as was a committee which looks into the causes of patient deaths. This is said to be "something the rest of the NHS can learn from".
Peter Homa, chief executive of the CHI, said: "Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust has done a lot in the last few years to meet its financial and performance targets but more still needs to be done to ensure that patients get the best possible care.
"The Trust is producing an action plan in response to this report and I am confident that, once implemented, this will result in further improvements for patients."
Mike Pollard, Essex Rivers NHS Trust chief executive, said the report shows the enormous and sometimes competing pressures that consultants are working under and the need for more of them.
Published Wednesday October 30, 2002
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