STAFF at Warrington and Halton Hospital Trust have reason to celebrate following their latest CQC inspection.

The health watchdog visited the hospitals in March and April, with Critical Care awarded outstanding.

The report shows significant improvement across all five key areas of enquiry - safe, caring, responsive, effective and well led - awarding good to each element.

This is a significant improvement since the hospital trust was rated as requires improvement in its last two inspections.

Maternity services at Warrington Hospital were inspected for the first time as a separate service.

Inspectors noted it had good numbers of skilled and experienced staff who cared for patients with compassion and appropriate emotional support.

Inspectors identified numerous areas of outstanding practice.

These include the Smart Heart programme run by consultant cardiologist Ahmed Farag with primary school children, the Frailty Unit and the selection by NHS England of the consultant nurse as their expert advisor, Critical Care’s outreach practice and the maternity bereavement service which won the Butterfly Award Best Hospital Bereavement Team.

Warrington Guardian:

Dr Ahmed Farag

Mel Pickup, chief executive said: “This good rating demonstrates a significant shift in the standards we deliver for our patients in just 20 months since our last inspection was published.

“We changed our mission to focus on not only achieving a good rating but to take the trust to outstanding for our patients, our communities and each other. We are already working on the areas in the report that the inspectors felt still had room for improvement.

Warrington Guardian: Chief executive Mel Pickup at Halton Hospital

Mel Pickup

“Our 4,400 staff seized the opportunity to be the change and the report is a testament to their sheer determination that nothing but good was what we wanted for our patients.

“This is the culmination of two year’s exceptional effort, hard work and determination by WHH staff and volunteers.”

England’s chief inspector of hospitals, professor Ted Baker, said: “We found the trust had a renewed focus on sustainability and services aligned with community healthcare services. It had clearly responded well to our previous findings.”