Weston General Hospital has been rated as 'inadequate' by an independent watchdog following a recent inspection.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced the 'inadequate' rating today (Thursday).

Caring at the site was rated as 'good', while effective and responsive are rated as 'requires improvement' and safe and well-led are rated as 'inadequate'.

The Weston site medical care service was previously rated as inadequate overall. Outpatients was rated as good.

The CQC rated University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), which runs Weston Hospital, as good overall, however, some improvements are still needed.

Robert Woolley, chief executive of UHBW, said: “We welcome this CQC report and the overall rating of Good for the organisation and were pleased that inspectors found many positives, including how staff treat patients with compassion and kindness and take account of their individual needs and help them understand their conditions.

"It is this commitment and focus on the needs of our patients which has enabled us to retain our rating of Outstanding for caring. However, we fully accept there are areas where we need to do better.

"We need to deliver what we set out to achieve when we merged in April 2020, which happened at the point the whole of the NHS had to shift the focus of its attention and efforts to responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This has significantly affected our ability to move at the pace we would have otherwise been able to, and we fully acknowledge this has meant we have not always been able to support our staff to make the improvements they need and want to make.

"By the end of December an additional 248 registered nurses will have joined UHBW this year, with a further 72 nurses due to join us by the end of March 2022. We have also recruited to a full complement of both junior and middle grade doctors in medicine in Weston.

"We are committed to making the necessary improvements and our focus will remain on providing safe and high-quality care to our patients.”

Inspectors found that at Weston General Hospital there were concerns that the clinical leadership was not effective and there were not enough staff to meet the needs of patients.

This in turn raised concerns that patients were not receiving care and treatment which met their needs. Inspectors were later informed the trust had taken immediate steps to address these concerns.

There were unresolved concerns about the support and supervision of a group of trainee doctors based at Weston General Hospital. In both February 2021 and April 2021, Health Education England made the decision to relocate 10 foundation year one trainee doctor posts in medicine out of Weston General Hospital.

This action was supported by the General Medical Council. They were moved to other areas within the trust.

Staff said they felt little effort had been made to foster good working relationships between staff on the Weston Hospital and the other Bristol hospital sites. This included supporting the medical care service at the hospital.

However, there had been collaboration and good outcomes in respect of COVID-19 vaccinations for patients and staff.

At Weston Hospital, management processes were not effective to allow leaders to develop the service or manage the issues the service faced. Leaders in Weston General Hospital did not demonstrate the capacity to run the service.

However, inspectors also found the outpatients service at Weston General had enough staff to care for patients and keep people safe and staff treated patients with compassion and kindness while respecting their privacy and dignity.

The trust had maintained a safe service during the pandemic. Staff had contributed to decision-making and changes to routines, which helped to avoid additional pressures arising from the pandemic to ensure high-quality care was delivered.

The coronavirus pandemic added to workload pressures. This had led to some delays in complaints investigation and response times at the hospital.

Responding to the rating, North Somerset Council's deputy leader and executive member for health, Cllr Mike Bell, said: “I am disappointed by the results of the latest CQC inspection of UHBW. Weston General Hospital staff continue to deliver good quality care to the local community and have done an amazing job supporting local residents during the Covid pandemic.

"However, problems identified in the inspector's report do need to be tackled. I’m particularly concerned about the findings that the trust leadership had a lack of awareness of medical care at Weston General Hospital, that there was evidence of a lack of partnership working between the Bristol and Weston sites and that the leadership was not on top of some major concerns, including the supervision of junior doctors.

“We are due to meet again in the next couple of weeks and will be pressing for a stronger action plan to address the weaknesses identified. I welcome and endorse the comments from the inspectors that the Trust needs more support from NHS England and the local health and care system to deliver sustainable improvements. Now must surely be the time for more resources and investment to be delivered to Weston General Hospital to enable staff and management alike to turn the page and implement the improvements I know they want to see.

“NHS staff have done an incredible job supporting our community through the Covid pandemic and it is great to see the care provided by staff at Weston highlighted and recognised by the CQC inspectors.”