Arrowe Park Hospital praised by inspectors for care improvements

Arrowe Park Hospital still "requires improvement", inspectors said

Hospital bosses have been praised for improving patients' care but more work must still be done to raise standards to a "good" level, inspectors found.

The leadership team at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral had "taken action" after a previous inspection in 2019, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

One patient had an "unacceptable" wait of more than 14 hours to be admitted.

The hospital, run by Wirral Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is still rated as "requiring improvement".

The CQC's unannounced visit in October was made to check improvements had been made since the previous inspection.

In its new report, the CQC said it was "pleased to see staff were focused on meeting the needs of patients and were clear about their roles and responsibilities".

Inspectors said the rating for medical care had moved up from "requires improvement" to "good".

Both medical care and urgent and emergency services continued to be "good" at caring for patients, the CQC concluded.

'Urgency'

But inspectors found patients could not always access services when they needed them.

"We found patients often had a long wait for admission," the report said. "one person waited over 14 hours to be admitted on to the ward, which is unacceptable and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

"Staff did not always identify and quickly act upon patients at risk of deterioration in the urgent and emergency department waiting room."

The CQC identified issues with staffing and some levels of training.

The watchdog praised hospital employees for treating patients with "compassion" and "respecting their privacy and dignity".

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