Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals to be inspected after previous 'requires improvement' rating
Inspections will be carried out at Shropshire's two main hospitals next month after they were rated as needing improvement.
The watchdog Care Quality Commission will be visiting the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal in the week commencing December 12.
The hospital trust was last inspected in October 2014, when it received an overall rating of 'requires improvement' and told it had to do better in four out of five key areas.
The CQC team was asked to rank the hospitals based on whether the services they provided were safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The inspections rate services as outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
Only the caring element received a "good" rating, with staff at the two hospitals praised throughout the report for the "caring and compassionate" way they dealt with patients.
Inspectors also said both Royal Shrewsbury and the Princess Royal were "clean and well maintained" and said infection control rates were lower than a lot of other trusts.
But hospital bosses were criticised for consistently failing to meet the Government target of seeing all A&E patients within four hours or less.
The mortuary at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital was also criticised by the CQC as being "not safe" and "inadequately maintained".
Since the last inspection health bosses said major changes have been made including a £1.89 million refurbishment of Shrewsbury mortuary.
Helen Jenkinson, deputy director of nursing and quality at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: "We are very proud of the care we provide at our hospitals and the manner in which it is delivered.
"We welcome the visit of the Care Quality Commission and look forward to talking to inspectors about some of the improvements we have made since they last visited in October 2014 in areas such as end of life care, elective care, ITU, A&E, radiology, cancer, ambulatory medicine, respiratory medicine, stroke, maternity and paediatrics.
"We still face a number of challenges, such as emergency admissions and attendances and the timely discharge of patients into other facilities. These are well known and not just restricted to SaTH, but importantly, these challenges do no prevent our hospitals from delivering good care."
Healthwatch Shropshire will inform the CQC's latest inspection of the trust by submitting information about people's experiences of hospital services.
It will share information in advance, including comprehensive reports of findings in relevant reports, patient experience surveys and comments shared by the public about their experiences of using hospital services.
Jane Randall-Smith, chief officer of HWS, said: "We are pleased to contribute to this year's CQC inspection on behalf of the public. We want to ensure that the patient voice is really listened to and used to drive better care.
"We are committed to working with inspectors, commissioners and the trust to make sure our local hospitals are safe and patient focussed."
Healthwatch Shropshire is encouraging Shropshire residents to talk to them about their experiences of care provided by the two hospitals. Any feedback will be shared anonymously with the CQC to highlight areas of concern and to improve patient care.
