Royal Oldham mid-table in risk-list

MORE than a quarter of “high risk” NHS trusts may not be offering safe, good-quality care, a new report shows.

Analysis by the Care Quality Commission regulator found 44 trusts with the most serious level of concern.

All 161 trusts were rated in one of six risk bands, high (1) to low. Pennine Acute, which runs the Royal Oldham Hospital, was rated medium risk in band three, while Tameside Foundation Trust was rated in band one.

Some trusts were flagged for incidents resulting in harm to patients, others scored low on staff or patient satisfaction, several came to attention due to whistleblowing staff and others had a higher than expected death rate among patients who should be low risk.