BASILDON Hospital has been given the all clear by health watchdog Monitor.

The decision by Monitor to remove its licence conditions comes weeks after the Trust was removed from special measures and given a ‘good’ overall rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The hospital was still formally in breach of its licence to provide NHS funded services because of historic issues with A&E performance, mortality, waiting time targets and governance arrangements.

Following a raft of improvements including reducing A&E waiting times, a recruitment drive and improved mortality rates, the once-troubled hospital has been given a clean bill of health.

Adam Cayley, regional director at Monitor, said: “We are pleased that patients are receiving better care at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals as a result of improvements the trust has made in A&E, paediatric services and mortality rates.

“Both the trust and Monitor have worked incredibly hard to ensure patients in Basildon can get the best quality of care possible.

"Monitor has decided that the trust is no longer in breach of its licence as a result of this hard work.”

Clare Panniker, Trust chief executive, said: "Monitor's decision to remove all of their outstanding conditions from our licence is the culmination of a huge amount of hard work by all staff across the Trust.

"We know that we have been improving the quality of our services for some time but this decision should give patients further confidence that when they walk through our door they will receive the best care the NHS has to offer."