All of England’s worst performing hospitals are today named and shamed by our damning analysis.
MailOnline’s Huge Audit — exposed in an interactive map that allows you to search your own area – reveals 268 NHS and private sites are providing patients with substandard care.
Twenty-three sites, marked red, were rated ‘unsatisfactory’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which regulates all hospitals in the country.
Inspectors at one, Alexandra Private Hospital in Derbyshire, “were not sure” that anatomical waste was properly disposed of. Staff gave “contradictory statements” about how long unrefrigerated rubbish was left before collection.
Another – the royal Shrewsbury Hospital, one of the NHS hospitals at the center of Britain’s worst-ever pregnancy scandal – ‘not always’ found to have cared for dead bodies before they arrived at the mortuary.
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MailOnline’s massive audit – exposed on an interactive map that lets you search your own area – reveals dozens of NHS and private sites are providing patients with substandard care. One – the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (pictured), one of the NHS hospitals at the center of Britain’s worst pregnancy scandal – was found not to have ‘always’ cared for dead bodies before they arrived at the mortuary
Inspectors from another – Alexandra Private Hospital in Derbyshire – ‘were unsure’ that anatomical waste was disposed of properly, with staff giving ‘contradictory statements’ about how long unrefrigerated waste was left before collection
Deceased patients arrived “in an undignified manner,” inspectors wrote, which had a “significant and potentially very distressing” impact on visiting families.
The remaining 245 hospitals, marked orange on the map, have been marked as ‘room for improvement’ in their most recent inspection report.
The investigation into England’s substandard health facilities is the latest in a series of MailOnline revelations.
Last week we audited the worst performing community pharmacies in the UK.
Earlier this year, MailOnline also mapped every GP practice rated ‘inadequate’ and ‘requires improvement’ by the CQC.
The watchdog conducts regular inspections at every hospital in the country.
It rates each hospital as ‘excellent’, ‘good’, ‘needs improvement’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ based on five criteria.
These include assessing whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-run.
The hospital’s overall rating does not necessarily mean that every service at the site is performing at that level.
Of the 245 assessed by the regulator as ‘needing improvement’, more than half (132) were NHS hospitals. The others were private.
Meanwhile, of the 23 rated ‘unsatisfactory’, seven were NHS, while 16 were private.
Services provided by these private hospitals include dental diagnostics and screening tests, 2D and 4D pregnancy ultrasounds, and cosmetic surgery.
One in 10 patients in the UK is now paying for private treatment in the UK – a 39 per cent increase over the last two years – with millions completely bypassing their own GP or hospital as they struggle to get appointments.
The NHS trusts with hospitals that were under-rated included: University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust.
Two hospitals under Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust were also found to be ‘unsatisfactory’.
It comes as a damning audit of England’s crumbling NHS hospitals earlier this year revealed that urine and faeces seeped into wards, poured through ceilings and spewed out of sewers.
An NHS hospital trust recorded 105 sewer leaks in 2022 alone – almost one every three days.
The Liberal Democrats, who collected the data, found NHS trusts registered a total of 456 leaks between January and December 2022.
In March, a survey of NHS staff also proved fair 62.9 percent of the 636,000 employees surveyed believed that if a friend or relative needed treatment, they would be satisfied with the standard provided.
Experts at the time said the findings were “no surprise” and warned that working in an “environment of constant and unrelenting pressure” had taken its toll.
All inspection reports included in MailOnline’s analysis were the most recently published reports.
The total ranked ‘requires improvement’ or ‘insufficient’ represents approximately 11 per cent of all 2,393 registered hospitals in England.
Member of Parliament Daisy Cooper, health spokeswoman for the Lib Dems, told MailOnline: ‘The Conservatives have been driving our NHS into the ground for years.
“Not only are waiting times for treatments being pushed into the danger zone, but people are even struggling to see their GP and dentist, and now even hospitals are on the brink of collapse.”
She added: “This government has failed our healthcare system time and time again. They promised too much and delivered too little.
“Their promise of 40 new hospitals is not worth the paper it is written on as hospital buildings are literally collapsing and some wards are now unusable.
“Conservative ministers owe the public an apology for failing to keep their promises to the NHS and endangering patients.”
A CQC spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Most people are getting good, safe care, and it’s thanks to the efforts of those working in the NHS and the independent sector.
“Through our inspection and monitoring of hospital services, we have been consistently impressed with the commitment we have found to ensuring patient safety – and the number of times we highlight good practice certainly outweighs the enforcement action we take. ‘
They added: ‘Unfortunately, however, safe and good care is not always experienced by everyone and there is more work to be done to ensure safe care for everyone, every time.
‘If we see that the care needs to be improved, we make that clear to hospitals and we expect them to take action.’
An NHS spokesperson said: ‘NHS staff are committed to providing the best care to patients, with the vast majority of NHS hospitals rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
‘While most providers rated as unsatisfactory are privately owned, the NHS provides intensive support to help trusts implement CQC recommendations to improve services.’
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Care also told MailOnline: ‘Anyone who goes to hospital should receive safe, high-quality and compassionate care and be treated with dignity and respect.
“We will continue to work with CQC to ensure that all hospital environments provide expected care.
They added: ‘We are also supporting health and social care services with up to £14.1bn for health and social care over the next two years, on top of record funding, to reduce waiting lists and improve care.’