Mixed picture of care at Shropshire hospitals

A hospital trust in Shropshire has received a mixed assessment of key aspects of its care, with inspectors finding progress but also areas falling short of standards at its two actue sites.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited both Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and sister hospital Royal Shrewsbury, with the same two areas assessed at each - medical care and urgent and emergency care.

Concerns over safety and staffing levels were among the issues raised by inspectors.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust (SATH) said it welcomed the findings and recognised "there is more work still to be done".

In Telford, medical care received an unchanged rating of requires improvement, while urgent and emergency provision was upgraded from inadequate to requires improvement.

At the Shrewsbury site, medical care was upgraded from requires improvement to good, while urgent and emergency care stood unchanged with a requires improvement rating.

The hospitals received the unannounced inspections as part of continual checks on the quality of healthcare. Each is rated as requiring improvement overall.

Inspectors found that Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's urgent and emergency care department did not always have enough staff, and staff told inspectors this left them unable to carry out basic safety checks.

Patients were not consistently assessed quickly enough, risking delays in identifying people whose conditions were serious or deteriorating, the CQC found.

But inspectors noted the hospital worked with a local community trust to reduce avoidable admissions through an integrated front door team, helping people access care closer to home instead.

The hospital's medical care was commended for working with community trusts and housing support agencies.

But the report said staff did not always follow infection control procedures - with a confirmed salmonella case on one ward not reported to the local health protection team, raising the risk of further spread.

At Princess Royal, inspectors gauging emergency care found the hospital routinely used "corridor care", risking people's "safety, privacy and dignity".

Their report said the department did not have enough space for the number of people staff were supporting.

Its medical care was scored poorly in multiple areas of a national stroke audit, and the number of beds for emergency stroke admissions had reduced over time, according to CQC findings.

Staff's observation compliance for patients was significantly below the 90% target, having been recorded at 54% - risking undetected changes in people's conditions, inspectors found.

The CQC said it told the Trust to submit a plan showing what action it was taking to make immediate improvements in response to inspectors' concerns.

Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC's deputy director of hospitals in the West Midlands, said that when inspectors visited Princess Royal Hospital, they found improvements in leadership, with staff feeling supported and able to speak up.

She said: "The culture around safety and learning was strong in both services, and we saw real commitment from teams to improve, which is a good foundation to build on.

"People said staff were kind, friendly and responsive, and we saw staff treating people with dignity and compassion throughout our time there."

But Jenkinson said in some cases, patients were waiting more than 12 hours in chairs or on trolleys.

She added: "We know staff were doing their best in difficult circumstances and faced high levels of demand, but people deserve timely, appropriate care."

Jo Williams, group chief executive at SATH, said the report reflected another step in the trust's improvement journey.

"The CQC has recognised the new services and improvements we have made since 2024, however, we do not underestimate the work still to do," Williams said.

"Our patients continue to face unacceptable waiting times, and we are committed to accelerating our progress through investing in new services and more modern tools to enable colleagues to deliver the best care.

"I am proud the CQC has recognised the care and compassion of our colleagues.

"We will keep moving forwards to ensure that everyone who receives care, visits or works across our services are consistently treated with kindness and respect and experiences the highest standards of care."

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.