HALTON and Warrington Hospitals have been ordered to make further improvements by the healthcare regulator following an inspection earlier this year.

The Care Quality Commission has rated Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as requiring improvement overall for the second time in three years following a pre-announced inspection in March.

Inspectors had previously ordered improvements following a visit  in 2015.

While emergency services, children and young people’s services, surgery and end of life care at the trust were rated as good by the CQC, a report published on Monday found that the hospital ‘required improvement in key areas’.

This included medical care, maternity and gynaecology, critical care and outpatients with the chief inspector of hospital Professor Ted Baker advising a total of 30 areas for improvement.

Insufficient numbers of staff were available in some areas which had high levels of vacancies and usage of agency workers, while levels of training in employees could be improved.

However a number of ‘areas of outstanding practice’ were also found by the CQC including its direct access to electronic records held by GPs and its specialist dementia unit, the Forget Me Not ward.

Inspectors also praised the development of a paediatric acute response team based at Bath Street Health and Wellbeing Centre, the use of tools to measure the frailty of older patients in emergency care and training A&E consultants to use ultrasound to allow quicker diagnoses for urgent conditions.

Mel Pickup, chief executive of Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “At Warrington Hospital, end of life and children and young people’s services were rated as good and at Halton Hospital, urgent care service and surgery were rated as good – overall, the trust was rated good for caring.

“The CQC highlighted areas of good practice – including the development of the paediatric acute response team, our direct access to electronic information held by GPs and community services, the innovative public engagement work for the urgent care centre with Widnes Vikings to promote the appropriate use of services and the dementia friendly environment on the Forget Me Not unit.

“Although disappointed we weren’t able to demonstrate sufficient improvement since our last inspection to be rated good overall, we are pleased that the chief inspector did recognise the many improvement made since 2015 against a context of significant challenges for the NHS.

“In the nine months since our inspection, we have already undertaken significant improvements based on the verbal feedback at the time of inspection in March 2017.

“Our improvement journey towards good continues and our patients should be assured that their safe, quality care and experience remains our highest priority.

“We thank them for taking the time to share their views with us through the friends and family test, where we consistently exceed 90 per cent recommended Warrington and Halton hospitals as a place to receive care and treatment.”