Mixed views after latest inspections at Shropshire's main hospitals

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, was placed into special measures in 2018 after a highly critical report by the Care Quality Commission.

It has also been the subject of a number of warnings after follow up inspections.

The trust's board of directors were told at a meeting on Thursday that CQC inspectors returned to the hospitals last month and will be coming back later in August.

The most recent inspections have involved medicine, end of life, maternity and emergency and urgent care services.

Bosses are still awaiting formal reports from the visits, but say the trust is already working to bring in improvements where concerns have been raised.

Nursing director Hayley Flavell said it had been a "really positive experience".

She said the CQC visited both Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital to inspect medicine services.

Ms Flavell told board members during the meeting, which was held online, that some positives had been highlighted and inspectors saw that staff had a "really caring approach".

She added: "The areas of improvement which we are focussing on is regarding risk assessments, some of our wards were quite cluttered and there was a lack of individualised care planning.

"The positives from maternity, on the PRH site, were learning from incidents; the staff demonstrated resilience during very difficult circumstances; there was good medicines management; compassionate and caring staff across both midwives and consultants.

"There were some concerns raised regarding the morale on the midwife-led unit at the Telford site.

"There was also a lack of clarity amongst the staff regarding maternity leadership.

"We have had some significant gaps within our maternity leadership over the last six months and we have got plans in place to mitigate that."

In emergency and urgent care, she said inspectors noted an overall improvement in the management of deteriorating patients; improved safeguarding practices and understanding of the Mental Capacity Act; patients provided good feedback and staff morale had improved.

But she said there were concerns regarding infection, prevention and control (IPC) and that patients were waiting long periods of time to receive care and treatment.

She said an action plan was provided to inspectors to address the IPC concerns which they were satisfied with.

Ms Flavell said the trust had been aware of the issues that were raised.