IMMEDIATE improvements to care standards have been ordered at Beverley's £20m new hospital after concerns patients were at risk.
Six "serious untoward incidents" have taken place at the East Riding Community Hospital since its opening a year ago, including an emergency that put a patient at risk.
Concerns about staff competency, low morale, above-average sickness levels and "bullying" management styles were also raised during an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Following June's inspection, admissions were suspended and the hospital cut beds from 30 to 12.
Now, the CQC has published findings that reveal standards had not been met in three out of seven categories, including the care and welfare of patients, supporting workers and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision.
The CQC reported: "The issue of staff competency and a backdrop of serious incidents challenged the notion of the ward as a place of patient safety."
The watchdog said patients spoken with were satisfied with their treatment but inspectors were still concerned patients were at risk of unsafe care that affected their health and welfare.
The CQC reported staff had not received appropriate professional development.
Some had worked at hospitals in Hornsea, Beverley and Driffield for some 20 years and lacked confidence for the move to the new hospital.
Some had found the change "very stressful" and sickness levels were above average.
The matron and service manager told inspectors more than half of ward registered nurses had "differing levels of competency issues".
The CQC reported: "They had considered the safety of patients on the ward to have been in doubt and they considered this was potentially still the case."
Inspectors were told GPs were also finding the situation difficult and were "not comfortable managing".
The CQC also looked at staffing levels and abilities in the Neighbourhood Community Team (NCT), which also had staff on sick leave.
Inspectors were told a collective staff grievance was being looked at and morale among the nurses was low.
The CQC reported: "We were also informed through whistle-blowing information that nurses perceived some of the management styles in the NCT as "bullying".
"This information was relayed to the trust executive team and while they agreed to look into these views, they also told us that sometimes a "strong" management style was misunderstood as bullying.
"The outcome view of the NCT staff was that they considered patients to be at risk of poor care because of insufficient qualified and experienced staff working on the team, due to staff 'acting up' and vacancies not being filled at the correct skill level, and because of high levels of workload."
The CQC stated the trust's board did not have a full understanding of the workforce issues, which had led to "potentially poor patient safety and lack of timely action" at the hospital.
David Snowdon, chief executive of the Humber NHS Foundation Trust, said action was under way.
He said: "We would firstly like to acknowledge that the CQC assessors have raised areas of concern for patient safety that are 'real' and valid.
"However, we can confirm that the trust was not only aware of these areas of concern but had been proactively addressing them and putting mitigating actions in place prior to the visit.
"Always ensuring the safety of our patients is at the centre of all we do.
"Our staff strive to provide high quality care in safe patient environments.
"We are already taking action in response to the CQC report to assure the CQC that we comply with essential national standards."
Jane Hawkard, NHS East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group chief officer, said the group was working closely with Humber NHS Foundation Trust to address the issues.
She said: "We look forward to the reopening of the beds once we have received the required assurances that a safe service is in place for our population."
The trust said the six serious untoward incidents amounted to 1.28 per cent of the 390 patients over the past year.
George McManus, Labour's spokesman for Beverley and Holderness, was among campaigners demonstrating about "mismanagement of the NHS" outside the hospital yesterday.
