Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust "inadequate"

Royal Oldham Hospital rated "inadequate"

Urgent improvements are needed at local hospitals after the Care Quality Commission rated Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust as "inadequate".

Pennine Acute, which runs Rochdale Infirmary, the Royal Oldham Hospital, Fairfield General Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital, was rated as "inadequate" overall, the lowest rating, after inspectors raised serious concerns with staffing levels, infrastructure, safety systems and leadership.

In the five main areas of inspection, the trust was rated as "inadequate" in the "Safe" and "Well-led" categories, and was told it "Requires Improvement" in the "Effective" and "Responsive" categories.

Only the "Caring" category recording a positive rating of "Good" after inspectors saw Trust staff "treating patients in a compassionate and sensitive way" during their visit in February and March, this year.

Individual hospitals were also given ratings by the CQC with North Manchester and the Royal Oldham both rated as "inadequate" while Fairfield General Hospital in Bury was deemed as "Requires Improvement". Rochdale Infirmary, and all community services run by the Trust were rated as "Good". The Trust also received the top "Outstanding" rating for the Caring domain in the community End of Life Service.

Despite reporting concerns about the systems and procedures that are in place to keep people safe and free from harm, inspectors stopped short of recommending the Trust to be placed into special measures.

Pennine Acute must now implement substantial improvements and actions in order to maintain safer and more reliable care at all of its hospitals.