King's Lynn Queen Elizabeth Hospital: Improvements at 'inadequate' trust

Improvements have been made at a hospital in special measures but "more work is needed", a report said.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk, was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in September.

Four out of six of the hospital's core services had improved, but its overall rating remained "inadequate".

The CQC's chief inspector of hospitals said "real cultural change" had taken place and staff were more "positive".

"The dedicated work of staff deserves recognition, a number of improvements have been made at the most challenging time for hospital services, and this is to be commended," said Ted Baker, the chief inspector.

After the visit between 14 and 23 September, inspectors found medical care, urgent and emergency care, end-of-life care and diagnostic imaging had progressed from an "inadequate" rating to "requires improvement".

Maternity and surgery services remain rated as "requires improvement".

All six services have been rated as good for whether they are both caring and safe.

Mr Baker said inspectors noted how caring staff were and there were examples of some who "exceeded expectations to help people".

While improvements had been made, the hospital remained in special measures because inspectors did not look at whether the trust which runs it, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, was well-led.

The CQC has told the trust it must make improvements to training for anaesthetists in maternity, staffing levels in diagnostic imaging and the out-of-hours staffing arrangement.

Chairman of the trust, Professor Steve Barnett. said he was "absolutely delighted" by the report and said the improvements were "testament" to the "massive effort" from staff during "probably the greatest challenge any of us working in the NHS have faced".

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