POOLE Hospital “requires improvement” and must do better on safety according to the latest Care Quality Commission report published today.

While inspectors, who visited January and February, rated it as good for being caring, effective and well led, it requires improvement in being responsive and safe - giving the hospital its overall rating.

Safety issues were in evidence in medical care, surgery, critical care, maternity and gynaecology, and children and young people according to the report.

They included inconsistent reporting of clinical safety issues in maternity services, medicines not always being kept secure or at the correct temperature, and some staffing problems, especially among midwives who said they were “regularly short staffed and not able to provide one to one care to women during established labour.”

The regulator has said the hospital must take action, including reviewing midwifery staffing, and assessing staffing levels and the skills mix in all areas. Better support for patients with learning disabilities and a new flagging alert system to identify looked after children within the trust must also be implemented.

Despite this Poole Hospital, which could lose its maternity and A&E unit in an ongoing review of services across the county, was rated good across 31 of 39 factors assessed, and outstanding in one.

Gully’s Place, the specialist suite for babies, children and young people who require palliative and end-of-life care, was singled out for praise, as was the ‘exceptionally well-led’ nuclear medicine department.

Inspectors also found staff were consistently kind and compassionate, and noted the positive, open culture.

Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said overall there was “a lot to be proud of,” adding: “I am particularly impressed with the “Poole Approach” which is an excellent philosophy of care and set of values that were evidently held by all staff.”

He said while many patients had timely assessment and treatment, he welcomed further changes to “decrease the number of times patients might move around wards and to ensure patients are not waiting longer than 18 weeks for surgery.”

He added: “The trust leadership knows what it needs to do to bring about improvement and our inspectors will return at a later date to check on what progress has been made.”

Debbie Fleming, chief executive, called the report “hugely encouraging” in the light of the trust’s “challenged financial position”, recent “organisational changes”, and given that inspectors “could not have visited the hospital at a busier time.”

She added: “All staff were encouraged that the inspectors found lots to be proud of here, highlighting exemplary practice in respect of our culture, and the kindness and compassion that our staff show to patients every day.

“The CQC has rightly highlighted areas in which we must take further action, and many of these actions are well underway. Our ambition is to deliver an ‘outstanding’ quality of service to our patients, and our first priority will be to focus on turning the ‘requires improvement’ ratings to ‘good’.”