Chris Long, Chief Executive at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said:

“Following its inspection in November 2022 the CQC has published its report into services at our hospitals. The CQC inspected Emergency and Urgent Care, Medicine and Surgery and looked at the ‘well-led’ key question for the Trust. The overall rating for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was Requires Improvement, which is the same as the rating we received in 2020.

“We were pleased that the CQC acknowledged the compassion and kindness, which our staff and teams demonstrate in the treatment of their patients. For ‘Care’ we received a rating of ‘Good’ from inspectors.

“Inspectors rated the key domain of ‘Safe’ as ‘Inadequate’ and they highlighted a number of issues in emergency care and surgery at the Trust, which required urgent action. Many of the areas they highlighted for improvement have already been addressed.

“Like many other Trusts up and down the country we have experienced a sustained period of extreme pressure on our emergency services. Despite the best efforts of our staff we have seen long delays for patients in our Emergency Department and we apologise to anyone who has not received the quality of care we always aim to provide.

“We know that staff have already delivered against many of the urgent actions we set ourselves after we received the CQC feedback. Our goal now is to ensure that the improvements we are making will be sustained. We have a plan to open an intermediate care centre at Hull Royal Infirmary for patients who are medically fit to leave. This will increase capacity in our hospitals making it easier to discharge and admit patients and therefore reduce delays.

“I would like to thank our staff for the amazing care and support they give to our patients, while acknowledging that they have been working in an incredibly challenging and busy environment.”