Weston General Hospital improves after 'inadequate' rating

Hospital staff have been praised for helping it improve, but bosses admit there is more to be done.

Weston General Hospital has been upgraded from its "inadequate" rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The CQC rated the hospital 'requires improvement' after an inspection in August, up from inadequate - the lowest the health regulator can give.

It found staffing was stretched, although there were sufficient numbers to keep patients safe,

The hospital's surgical unit and identification of blood clot risks were areas where improvement was found to be needed.

Concerns were also raised about racist behaviour towards staff, highlighted as a priority to hospital leadership, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

But the report also found that staff provided good care, treated patients with kindness, and that the Weston General's leaders had the skills to run the hospital well and were making improvements.

Chief executive of the NHS trust that runs the hospital, Eugine Yafele, said: "I absolutely want to congratulate the team at Weston on getting the hospital to be on a firm footing of recovery and improvement."

Mr Yafele added: "What this also highlights is there is a steely determination, because the people who have done this are people at Weston, and actually 'requires improvement' is the start.

"I think their ambitions, and the ambitions we have for patients, are to go beyond that."

Chief Medical Officer Stuart Walker insisted: "I think its absolutely the case that there has been a very significant improvement.

"Now, that may manifest itself - in CQC function and how they process things - as inadequate to our eye but there has been a major improvement in the quality of care being able to be offered there."

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