The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn was downgraded from "good" to "requires improvement" in urgent and emergency care, along with medical care following an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in April.

The CQC said it had issued two warning notices requiring urgent improvements to keep patients safe and address management concerns.

The hospital said it accepted both its findings and the warnings, and was focussed on addressing them.

Sarah Ivory-Donnelly, deputy director of hospitals for the CQC in the East of England, said: "When we inspected the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we found the safety and quality of care across both services had declined.

"The trust also needed to do more to reduce waiting times in urgent and emergency care.

"During the inspection it was clear the department wasn’t meeting its 15-minute triage target, something that was also flagged as an area for improvement in our last assessment.

"We observed that people had to wait a long time to be seen within the department which impacted on their experiences and outcomes."

Caring at the QEH has remained rated "good" (Image: Ian Burt)

The CQC rated urgent and emergency care as requiring improvement for being safe, effective, and well-led - all of which were previously rated "good".

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