Urgent and emergency services at Worcestershire Royal Hospital were re-rated requires improvement overall following the inspection.
Craig Howarth, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: ‘When we inspected urgent and emergency services at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, we found a number of issues around waiting times, which resulted in people waiting too long for care and treatment, which is an issue nationally.'
Staff were often found caring for people in the back of ambulances due to delays to admissions.
One person said they had been left in pain for 13 hours in the waiting room with others saying they had spent long periods of time in corridors waiting to be transferred to other parts of the hospital.
One disabled person spent 16 hours in a wheelchair waiting for a bed.
However, the CQC noted the trust was working with partner health organisations to address the issues and ‘saw a genuine commitment to improve the standard of care people were receiving'.
Sarah Shingler, chief nursing officer said ‘we know some patients are still waiting too long to be seen', adding: ‘We apologise to anyone who has experienced a long wait for treatment, and we are working hard to reduce waiting times in our EDs and improve our ambulance handover times.'
Shingler said the trust was taking extra measures to ease pressure on urgent and emergency care services, reduce waiting times and improve ambulance handovers.
‘We are increasing the use of our Same Day Emergency Care services, freeing up more beds for patients who need to be admitted – including the creation of an additional 25 bed ‘winter ward' at Worcestershire Royal Hospital - and making sure that those patients who no longer need acute hospital care get back home as quickly as possible, Shingler said.
‘We are also working closely with our partners across the local health and care system to make best use of all the services and facilities in the county. That includes our system-wide ‘Home for Lunch' initiative which is highlighted in the CQC report.'
