Bristol Southmead Hospital emergency care inadequate

CQC inspectors found the service "at times was not safe enough"

Emergency and urgent care at Bristol's new £430m hospital remains inadequate after the latest inspection by a health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) warned Southmead Hospital in December about concerns over the quality of the service to patients in the emergency zone.

Inspectors returned in May and despite "some improvement" rated it inadequate.

North Bristol NHS Trust said it was "disappointed with this outcome".

The CQC said it would take "further action if required".

'Busy Mondays'

Chief inspector of hospitals Prof Sir Mike Richards said: "While I recognise that there have been some important changes at Southmead since our first inspection, it is clear that the requirements of the warning notice have not been fully met.

"It is not acceptable that, at times, the emergency service is not safe enough and that people are waiting too long for pain relief or treatment.

"We will undertake a further unannounced inspection of the emergency zone to follow up on these issues in the near future. If those concerns still remain, we will consider further enforcement action."

The CQC said it had chosen a Monday evening for the inspection as it was "likely to be busy".

North Bristol NHS Trust chief executive Andrea Young said it had taken place on an "exceptionally busy day".

She said: "The pattern of Mondays has emerged since we moved into this new hospital in Southmead, so it wasn't necessarily such a strong trend beforehand - it is now.

"We had hoped to be in a much better place at the time of re-inspection and are extremely disappointed with this outcome.

"We won't stop working to make changes and improvements until it is good and outstanding across the board. Our patients and our staff deserve nothing less."

Ms Young said improvements included recruiting additional staff in the emergency department and extra staff on Sundays and Mondays.

The full report can be found on the CQC's website.