Worcestershire Acute Hospitals trust 'improved' say watchdog

The rating for whether urgent and emergency services are effective at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is now good

Improvements have been made at a struggling hospital trust but more work is needed, according to inspectors.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was placed into special measures in December 2015 and remains so, as it was still rated as inadequate overall, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

The watchdog looked at urgent and emergency care and medical care at two of its hospitals in November.

The trust said it hoped the report provided "some welcome reassurance".

Urgent and emergency care services at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Alexandra Hospital in Redditch were now rated as requires improvement for whether services were safe, the CQC said.

Medical care safety at the Alexandra Hospital is now rated as requires improvement. They had all previously been judged inadequate.

The rating for whether urgent and emergency services are effective at Worcestershire Royal Hospital is now good, after previously being described as requires improvement.

The watchdog said inspectors found increased stability in the executive team and a "framework for mitigating risks" was also in place, but this was yet to be "embedded enough" to be fully effective.

Whether medical care is safe at the Alexandra Hospital is now rated as requires improvement

Trust chief executive Michelle McKay said the report helped it to identify areas where "further work is needed".

She said: "Our improved ratings in a number of key areas reflect the hard work done by colleagues across the trust and our focus on improving safety and quality."

The trust said the watchdog identified "outstanding" services including medicines safety work in the Worcestershire Royal Hospital emergency department and care for patients with mental health conditions in that department at the Alexandra Hospital.

It added areas the CQC identified where it needed to continue to improve included timeframes for resolving complaints and improved responsiveness by specialist doctors for patients in the emergency departments.