Thumbs up for Wexham Park from health inspectors

Frimley Park Hospital became the first in the country to be rated 'outstanding' in 2014, the same year that the failing Wexham Park Hospital in Slough was merged with it along with Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot.

Now a new inspection by the powerful Care Quality Commission of all three hospitals again found Frimley Park 'outstanding' - while the Slough and Ascot hospitals were found uniformly 'good'. The overall trust covering all three was rated 'good'.

Wexham Park earned a 'good' rating within 18 months of being taken over by Frimley Park.

The most recent visit actually found four of its services - end of life care, critical care, general medical care and out-patient services - 'outstanding'. The hospital earned 34 'good' ratings for other aspects of its care and just one 'requires improvement'.

The inspectors highlighted Wexham Park's compassionate patient care, good adherence to infection control management and support for patients in pain. They found staff took good account of local needs and treated complaints and concerns seriously, learning lessons when things could have been done better.

Wexham Park now boasts a new £49million emergency and assessment centre.

Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital also fared well in the inspection. It specialises in non-emergency operations and its handling of all aspects was found to be good.

The full reports have been published on the CQC website.

Dr Nigel Acheson, CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals for the south, said of the inspection reports which were published on Tuesday: “Our inspectors found a strong patient-centred culture with staff committed to keeping their patients safe. and encouraging them to be independent. In return patients and relatives spoke highly of staff and how they were informed of treatment plans and how these would affect them.”