Press statement from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in response to CQC report

Thursday 6 April 2023

Responding to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report, Matthew Hopkins, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“We are pleased that the positive progress we have made to improve care for patients in our emergency departments has been recognised and our overall rating in this area has improved at both the Alexandra and Worcestershire Royal Hospitals.

“This latest report means that we are no longer rated inadequate in any area across any of our hospitals – which is positive news for our patients, staff and local communities.

“Outstanding areas of practice were also recognised in both of our Emergency Departments, where our staff – whoare rightly praised in the report for their compassion and kindness despite working in extremely difficult conditions – arecontinuing to work incredibly hard to ensure patients get the help they need, as quickly and safely as possible in the face of continuing unprecedented demand.

“Following the inspection in November, a number of immediate actions were taken to address areas of concern – for example, improving the way we safely discharge patients home, or the place they call home, from our dedicated discharge lounges.

“We continue to work closely with West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) colleagues and our partners in the local health and care system to explore all possible ways of safely reducing waiting times and improving ambulance handover delays, which remains our number one quality and safety improvement priority.

“The opening of the first floor of the refurbished Aconbury East building at Worcestershire Royal Hospital at the end of last year has also given us additional capacity, greater flexibility on use of space and better opportunities to deploy staff flexibly, while at the same time the work is continuing on the ground floor of Aconbury East to complete the new and expanded Emergency Department which we are expecting to open in early Autumn.

“A detailed action plan following the publication of the report will now be developed and implemented to continue the improvements.”