SOUTHEND Hospital must improve its safety record and response times, according to the health watchdog.

Despite inspectors from the Care Quality Commission noting many areas of important progress, the hospital still requires improvement according to the rating guide.

One of the biggest problems facing the hospital is the continuing staffing crisis with low numbers of staff and difficulty recruiting others.

The report, published yesterday, stated: “The medical care service did not have enough nursing staff to keep people safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment.

“Nursing and medical staff compliance with trust-mandatory training was below target and nursing and medical staff were below the target for compliance with safeguarding adults and children training.”

The report noted changes had been implemented to address these concerns but had not yet had an impact.

Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: “On our return to Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust we found a number of improvements had been made.

“However, some of these changes were yet to be embedded and there remain areas where further work is needed.

“At this inspection we did not inspect critical care or maternity services but we found further work was needed with regard to medical services.

“This means the overall rating for whether the trust’s services are safe remains ‘requires mprovement’.” The hospital was told it must improve its safety after the last inspection was published in May last year.

He added: “Due to a declining performance in referral to treatment times in surgery, the rating for whether the trust’s services are responsive remains the same.”

Prof Baker noted there had been vast improvements in other services the hospital provides including urgent and emergency care, services for children and young people and end of life care.

He added: “Across the trust we found caring staff who worked together to meet patients’ needs, deliver treatment competently and who treated patients with dignity and respect.

“While we found improvements had been made at the trust, and saw a number of areas of outstanding practice, the trust needs to ensure improvements are embedded and sustained. We will return to check.”