{"id":222061,"date":"2025-10-24T06:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T06:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/222061\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T06:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T06:43:09","slug":"people-found-waiting-more-than-50-hours-in-unsafe-areas-of-merseyside-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/222061\/","title":{"rendered":"People found waiting more than 50 hours in unsafe areas of Merseyside hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inspection took place in May but a critical incident was declared at the hospital this week<\/p>\n

06:00, 24 Oct 2025Updated 06:32, 24 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

\"ArroweArrowe Park Hospital(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

Thousands of patients waiting more than 50 hours on trolleys have been frequently treated in unsuitable and unsafe areas of an NHS hospital<\/a> facing staff shortages and workers under significant pressure, an inspection has found. This comes days after a critical incident was declared at Arrowe Park Hospital.<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrowe Park Hospital<\/a>, which is run by the Wiral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, has been told it still requires improvement in all areas bar one. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it carried out the inspections in May 2025 \u201cafter receiving information of concern\u201d about medical care as well as urgent and emergency services.<\/p>\n

The CQC said it asked the trust to take immediate action after finding areas of concern in some areas. Senior leaders also \u201cacknowledged that patient flow was one of the biggest challenges within the hospital\u201d with bed occupancy rates was consistently above 95%.<\/p>\n

A total of 5,559 patients were cared for in a corridor between February and April 2025. The CQC said: \u201cPatients were spending more than 50 hours on trolleys and waiting room chairs once a decision to admit had been made due to no beds being available on the wards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report added: \u201cPatients were frequently treated in unsuitable and unsafe areas, including corridors, with little privacy or dignity. However, staff responded appropriately to safeguarding concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspectors also found significant shortfalls as \u201cthe service did not always detect and control potential risks in the care environment\u201d. Issues found included issues with rooms, broken call bells, and oxygen cylinders not being stored properly.<\/p>\n

The CQC was also told medical staffing was one of the biggest challenges with a shortage of doctors. While staffing levels have improved, this did not always meet patient demand and the hospital did not always have enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff.<\/p>\n

Despite the shortages, the CQC said: \u201cWe consistently heard positive feedback from patients and their families. Patients told us that the staff were attentive and responsive. Staff were described as kind and caring, whilst under significant pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspectors also said staff knew how to identify adults and children at risk of, or suffering, significant harm and worked with other agencies to protect them. The CQC said the safeguarding team was also approachable, and staff were familiar with the process.<\/p>\n

The inspection reports just days after a critical incident was declared at the hospital. An internal email, seen by the LDRS, revealed the trust is also seeking aid from other NHS trusts across the region to help manage the disruption.<\/p>\n

The message, sent to staff from Wirral<\/a> University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust on October 21, said: \u201cStaff are advised there has been an ongoing issue in the Sterile Service Department in recent days affecting surgical instruments.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatient safety is always our top priority and we took the difficult decision to pause elective activity last week while the issue was being looked into.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday afternoon, a critical incident was declared at the trust and we have command and control structures in place to manage this incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janelle Holmes, chief executive at Wirral University Teaching Hospital, said: \u201cWe welcome the report from the Care Quality Commission as it helps us continue to make improvements in what is a challenging time for all NHS services. It is reassuring that inspectors recognised aspects of our services as \u2018Good\u2019 and highlighted how effective our services are.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with other trusts, our urgent and emergency care services have faced very high levels of attendances throughout the year. We are close to completing our brand new urgent and emergency care facility which will greatly improve patient experience when it opens next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff continue to work extremely hard to provide quality care for our patients and we have plans in place to ensure our staff feel supported as we head into a busy winter period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inspection took place in May but a critical incident was declared at the hospital this week 06:00,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[37813,59,102,56,54,55,2166],"class_list":["post-222061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-arrowe-park-hospital","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wirral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}