A Greater Manchester hospital has some of the worst waits in the country
The Emergency Department at Wigan Royal Albert Edward Infirmary(Image: Adam Vaughan)
A Rochdale GP has been handed a second inadequate rating after ongoing safety issues were discovered, this week’s healthcare inspections reveal.
A warning notice was issued to Dr I K Barbar and Partners by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for failings in safe care and treatment, good governance and staffing. The healthcare watchdog said the service did not always listen to concerns about safety and did not always investigate and report safety events.
Not all patients felt staff treated them with compassion and understanding, the report added. Safety issues were also found in relation to medicine prescriptions.
The service had been placed in special measures by the CQC in December and remains so.
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Here is a breakdown of Greater Manchester’s recently published CQC reports:
Bolton
Lever Chambers 1 was rated ‘good’ by inspectors this week. The Ashburner Street GP was judged to offer safe care, with the CQC noting it worked with a local service to offer women’s health screenings and psychological and mental health appointments.
It also had a dedicated nurse to look at respiratory problems in children, with home visits offered. Patients described staff as ‘lovely and attentive’, ‘10 out of 10’ and ‘truly caring’.
A second Bolton GP service also received a ‘good’ rating this week. Dr Karim and Dr James-Authe, in Wyresdale Road, was again judged to offer safe care, with staff described as ‘very helpful’ by patients.
The service employed non-medical staff, known as social prescribers, to support patients with issues such as loneliness, money, jobs and housing. It also worked with external teams to identify people who were at risk of poor health and provided activities to help them, for example gardening and walking groups for those at risk of cardiovascular disease.
Bolton Medical Centre, in Rupert Street, was the third GP in the town to be rated ‘good’. Safe care was also noted at this service, which was praised for its weekly conversation café.
Carers and those who are lonely and isolated could use this to get health and welfare support, and people were able to see a clinician at the café without needing to book an appointment.
People said the service was ‘exceptionally welcoming and friendly’, adding they would ‘highly recommend’ it.
Also in Bolton, Homecare Team Ltd rounds off the area’s run of ‘good’ ratings. The domiciliary care service was spoken highly of by relatives, with staff described as ‘kind, caring and very respectful’.
Staff understood service user needs, and these were reviewed regularly to ensure care remained effective. Care was also very person-centred.
However, some concerns were raised over medicine management, resulting in a requires improvement rating for that category. Inspectors said records were not always accurate or legible and some risk assessments were ‘incomplete, underestimated the risk of some medicines and did not identify those medicines that were time specific’.
Information also ‘lacked clarity’ when it came to responsibilities for ordering, collecting, and storing medicines. Where covert administration was used, the provider did not have all the necessary measures in place to ensure these medicines were being administered safely.
Despite this, people reported that they or their loved ones felt safe at the service. One person said: “[Person] feels absolutely safe. [Person] was on his own for a few days last year as we were all away at the same time and Homecare Team were brilliant and gave him round the clock care, which was excellent.”
Another added: “They are a nice team, all very supportive, we feel very safe, nice people and [person] likes them all. We see familiar faces, they are on time, no problem, no missed visits.”
Manchester
Another ‘good’ rating was issued to Levenshulme Medical Practice. Some 92pc of respondents to a national survey felt the GP was good at listening to them, and 97pc said they felt their needs were being met.
Care was judged to be safe, and inspectors noted staff responded to people’s needs ‘in the moment’ to ‘minimise any discomfort, concern or distress’. It also had books for younger patients to explain medical procedures and help them feel less nervous.
Oldham
Bluebird Care, in Delph, was another service to be judged ‘good’ by inspectors this week. The homecare service offered ‘person-centred support’ which ‘promoted people’s wellbeing and independence’.
Records contained ‘clear information’ about needs and risks, and plans were reviewed and updated when needs changed. There were enough staff at the service, and these were recruited safely and their competency reviewed with spot checks.
A service user said: “They [staff] understand my needs and are very helpful. They cheer me up all the time, we have a good laugh and that is important.”
Rochdale
Dr I K Barbar and Partners was rated ‘inadequate’ overall this week and received that grade for safety and leadership. The GP was rated ‘requires improvement’ for effectiveness, while caring and responsiveness were not graded at this inspection and remain ‘requires improvement’.
A warning notice was issued to the service for failings in safe care and treatment, good governance and staffing. This is the second ‘inadequate’ rating for the service, which was placed in special measures in December.
The CQC said the service did not always listen to concerns about safety and did not always investigate and report safety events. Not all patients felt staff treated them with compassion and understanding.
While most staff had completed their mandatory training, the provider could not evidence training records for a member of staff who had been employed since 2014. Some new employees started work before recruitment checks had been completed and one long-standing employee had not had their right to work check completed. This was rectified during the inspection.
People on high risk medication were not always monitored correctly and some people did not receive all the necessary information when starting on new medicines. The service did not have available all the emergency equipment it needed, including resuscitation equipment.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service approached Dr I K Babar and Partners for a comment, but did not receive one.
Wigan
The Royal Albert Edward Infirmary was rated ‘requires improvement’ for Urgent and Emergency Services and Medical Care, and a warning notice was issued to the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital.
It was found by inspectors to be among the worst in the country for the number of patients spending more than 12 hours in the emergency department. This included ‘excessively long waits’ for speciality beds, with one patient waiting 44 hours during the inspection. There were ‘significant’ patient flow issues ‘across the hospital’, the CQC added.
Patients described the waiting room as ‘cold, overcrowded and uncomfortable’. Inspectors said they saw patients in mental health crisis, patients with intravenous (IV) fluids being administered, patients in dressing gowns and nightwear, and patients attending from prison with a police escort all sharing the same space.
People sometimes had to fill the adjacent corridor, while patients and their families could not always wait together. Additional delays were found at discharge with the trust again among the worst for this.
Patients’ needs were not ‘consistently’ checked throughout their stay, while cases of potential sepsis were ‘not always’ responded to in a ‘sufficiently timely way’. None of the trust’s sepsis targets had been met between November 2025 and April 2026.
Wards showed ‘significant staffing shortfalls’ in the six months before the inspection. This could be more than 50pc below planned levels in some areas. Staff training and policy compliance was also ‘below expected standards’ in some areas.
However, patients said staff were “always good when I come here” and “have been lovely to me all day”.
The Trust said it ‘recognises the areas where improvement is required and is working hard to address them’. Chief executive Mary Flemming added: “Providing safe, compassionate and high-quality care is our absolute priority and we remain fully committed to delivering the improvements needed for our patients and communities.
“Since the inspection, we have accelerated improvement work through our Emergency Department Transformation Programme, our Trust-wide Fundamentals of Care Programme and our established system-wide Better Lives Programme. This includes improving sepsis recognition and treatment, strengthening patient flow and the care environment, and working closely with mental health partners.
“Alongside this, our Better Lives Programme continues to bring partners together across Wigan borough to address wider health and care system pressures and help people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. We are already seeing improvements, but we know there is more work to do.”
Ashton View Nursing Home, in Ashton-in-Makerfield received this week’s final ‘good’ rating. Residents and relatives spoke positively about staff at the home.
One person said: “The staff are all lovely, they ask how I have got on when I have been out and have a nice cup of tea waiting for me when I get back.” Inspectors added it was ‘evident people felt comfortable in staff’s presence’.
Care was judged to be safe and staff were up-to-date with their training. The provider also arranged for events such as trips out and visiting singers for residents, which people ‘enjoyed’.
However, opinions were mixed over staffing levels and inspectors noted a ‘heavy’ reliance on agency staff while recruitment took place. While care records were overall judged to be detailed, some needed updating as residents’ needs had changed.