Patient safety real concern, inspector says

And analysis by The Yorkshire Post shows the figure in our region is even higher, with 92 per cent of hospital trusts rated as inadequate or in need of improvement when it comes to safety.

Only Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was rated as having ‘good’ levels of safety following its latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

In a report published yesterday, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals said the first round of new inspections for England’s hospitals had highlighted safety as a “real concern”.

Professor Sir Mike Richards cautioned that the model of acute hospital care which once worked well for the NHS “cannot continue to meet the needs of today’s population”.

Overall, 81 per cent of the 136 non-specialist trusts were deemed to be inadequate or to require improvement for safety. But the State of Hospitals report also praises improvements and applauds NHS staff for their caring attitudes.

“Frontline staff are the heroes of our reports,” the authors wrote. “We have found high levels of compassionate care in virtually every hospital.” The regulator introduced a new inspection programme in 2013 following the Mid Staffordshire scandal.

An NHS England spokesman said: “The CQC are right to praise dedicated NHS staff, and they are also right to argue for the more profound changes now being planned in how acute hospital care is delivered across England.”

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