THE trust running Redditch's Alexandra Hospital has been told it must ensure people receive better care following a report by a health watchdog.

England's chief inspector of hospitals found improvement in Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s urgent and emergency and medical care services, but says more work is needed.

The trust was placed into special measures in December 2015 and has been subject to frequent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) during this time.

It is currently rated as Inadequate overall.

In November 2017, a team of CQC inspectors visited urgent and emergency care and medical care at the trust’s Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alex Hospital.

The inspection identified improvements but inspectors found more work is needed to ensure services met the standards people should be able to expect.

Although the overall rating for the trust has not changed as a result of this inspection, urgent and emergency care services at both hospitals are now rated as Requires Improvement for whether services are safe.

Both were previously rated as Inadequate.

In addition, the rating for whether medical care at the Alex Hospital is safe has improved from Inadequate to Requires Improvement.

Chief inspector of hospitals, professor Ted Baker, said: “While the improvements haven’t resulted in a change to the trust’s overall rating of Inadequate, and the trust remains in special measures, it demonstrates that the trust is working to improve services for its patients.

“Further improvements are still needed and we will continue to monitor the trust closely. This will include further inspections."

He added: “The trust board knows what it must do to bring about sustainable change to its services and ensure people receive the care they should be able to expect.”

Inspectors found increased stability in the executive team on their return.

Staff spoke positively about this and the focus on achieving and sustaining good patient care.

They also said they felt respected, supported and valued and said the new executive team had made a difference to the trust.

The CQC also identified outstanding services in this review including care for patients with mental health conditions in the ED at the Alex Hospital.

However, inspectors highlighted areas where the trust must take action to bring urgent and emergency and medical care services up to the required standards.

Not all staff in senior roles had the experience, knowledge, capacity or capability to lead effectively and shortly before the inspection clinical divisions had been reconfigured.

There was a risk of instability across management divisions with some posts being filled by interim staff or acting up posts.

The trust had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and objectives to support this, but inspectors found that a robust strategy had not yet been developed.

Trust chief executive Michelle McKay welcomed the report saying it confirms that the trust is making progress.

“Our improved ratings in a number of key areas reflect the hard work done by colleagues across the trust and our focus on improving safety and quality in our hospitals,” she said.

“The trust’s leadership team are clear about the challenges which we still face.

"We understand that local people want to see more progress made, and we share their desire.

“However, we also hope that this report provides some welcome reassurance to all our hardworking and dedicated colleagues, and the people they care for, that we are moving the trust in the right direction and making solid, sustainable improvements, underpinned by our ambitious trust-wide three year culture change programme.”

She added: “We will use this report to refine and refocus our quality improvement plan and we will continue to talk openly and honestly about the progress we are making, as well as the challenges that have to be overcome.”

Full details of the ratings, including a ratings grid, are given in the report published online at http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RWP