Countess of Chester Hospital Trust still 'requires improvement' - CQC

People being given care in the corridors was "normalised", inspectors found

A hospital trust has once again been given a "requires improvement" rating by a health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an unannounced inspection across the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust due to concerns about the quality of services provided.

The watchdog flagged up "significant risk" relating to emergency care with "safety and dignity" being compromised.

The hospital trust said it was "actively delivering improvements".

Ann Ford, the CQC's director of operations in the north of England, said inspectors found there was not enough staff to provide safe care at the trust with inappropriate settings being used.

She added: "People receiving care in corridors had become normalised - this compromised people's safety, privacy and dignity."

Following their inspection, which was carried out between October and November 2023, the CQC carried out a follow up visit where they found further improvements, "although some concerns remained".

'Compassion and kindness'

The inspection team focused on five services - urgent and emergency care, services for children and young people, medical wards, maternity and medical care at Ellesmere Port Hospital - highlighting that caring was consistently rated as good across all five areas.

Among the main issues identified by the CQC was that people could not always access services when they needed them or did not receive the right care promptly.

There was not always enough staff with the right skills, training and regular appraisal to provide safe and effective care in multiple services.

Infection prevention and control was not managed well by the trust, with clinical environments and equipment not always clean and fit for purpose.

Inspectors said that trust bosses understood the issues the trust faced and the priorities and needed to turn improvement plans into action.

'A way to go'

They praised staff for continuing to treat people with compassion and kindness, taking their individual needs into account.

The "excellent care" provided "under difficult circumstances" by staff in the neonatal department was also flagged up.

Trust chief executive Jane Tomkinson said: "We have a way to go but we know where the challenges are and what we need to do to improve further.

"We are already starting to provide consistently better care to our patients.

"All our staff are united in their determination to raise the quality of care and improve the experiences patients and their loved ones have using our services."

The trust's director of nursing and quality and deputy chief executive, Sue Pemberton, said: "We know we have much more to do and our teams are actively delivering improvements every week.

"We are focused and will remain so until our services are consistently back to the standards our patients expect them to be."