Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (LCH) was a Dysfunctional Organization: Legal and Ethical Issues For Professional Practice Assignment, SUSS, Singapore

Assignment Brief

1. Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (LCH) was a dysfunctional organization from the outset. The Trust acted inappropriately in pursuit of Foundation Trust (FT) status, setting infeasible financial targets that damaged patient services. The Trust managed services that it was ill-equipped to deal with, particularly prison healthcare in HMP Liverpool.

Senior leadership and the Board failed to realize that the Trust was out of its depth, and did not take heed of the effects. Staff was overstretched, demoralized, and, in some instances, bullied. Significant unnecessary harm occurred to patients. External NHS bodies failed to pick up the problems for four years.

2. The Trust was created as a new organization in 2010 with a new and inexperienced management team. Their leadership was inadequate from the outset. The Chair and non-Executive Directors were also relatively inexperienced and offered insufficiently the challenge to the management team.

3. The Trust Board’s principal objective was to become an FT, though the frontline staff did not share this view. This objective dominated the time and attention of the management team, and they and the Board became blind to the real concerns that began to arise throughout the organization.

SECTION 2: BACKGROUND
The findings of an inspection of Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (the Trust)carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in late November and early December 2013 identified a range of serious issues at the Trust that required an immediate response to systemic failings identified. In part, the inspection had been undertaken following a number of whistleblowing concerns raised directly with the CQC by staff at the Trust.

SECTION 3: PATIENT HARM
Prevention of patient harm is central to the quality of health services, including their safety, and depends on some essential elements.

First, clinical care must be provided to evidence-based standards, by sufficiently competent and capable staff working together ineffective teams.

Second, there must be an organizational culture that promotes openness and learning, with effective professional and managerial leadership and supervision.

Third, there must be effective clinical governance, to enable timely identification of any deviation from the necessary standards, so that the causes are identified and corrective measures implemented promptly. We examined how each of these areas operated in the Trust and looked for direct evidence of the effects on patient outcomes

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this activity you will:

• Have a detailed understanding of the assignment requirements and marking process
• Know the key dates for both formative and summative submissions
• Understand how to gain further information on submissions from Keats

 Assessment: a critical analysis of one aspect of the inquiry into the Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust (LCH).

One Aspect:

• Incomplete record keeping
• Lack of resources
•  Lack of training
•  Ineffective communication
•  Lack of supervision

Remember:
Remember that you will need to show how failures in this aspect flouted:

• Ethical principles
• Legal requirements
• Professional expecta\

What will this assignment require of you?

An essay question shows critical thinking and has four key components:

1.  Requires a composed response drawing on relevant literature
2.  Produces a response that consists of more than one sentence
3.  Allows for different responses or pattern of responses
4.  Requires subjective judgment by a competent marker to judge the accuracy and quality of responses