Publish date: 15 July 2026
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published its findings following inspections of two services at Isle of Wight NHS Trust’s (IWT) St Mary’s Hospital.
Medical care (including older people’s care) has again been rated as Good overall, and while inspectors acknowledged the work already underway to improve, urgent and emergency services were re-rated as requires improvement.
Penny Emerit, Chief Executive of Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said, “We fully accept the CQC’s findings, which clearly identify areas where we need to make improvements at pace. While we have made progress, there is more to be done and I’m confident that the positive culture of learning identified by inspectors, alongside the compassionate care delivered by our teams, means that we can make the improvements needed.
“None of us want patients to experience delays or uncertainty around their care and we were already taking steps to tackle this. This includes working with our community, social care, and mental health providers to introduce new pathways to help our patients get the care they need sooner, in the most appropriate place.
“Our focus remains on addressing the areas identified by the CQC and ensuring every patient receives safe, timely and high-quality care. We are committed to continuing to work with our patients, colleagues and health and care partners to achieve this.”
Steve Thomas, Chief Nursing Officer at Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said, “It was reassuring to see that despite the challenges faced by our services, patients and their family or carers shared how staff treated them with kindness and dignity, with good communication throughout.
“There is much for us to do to improve, but I am confident that with our teams' culture of continuous improvement including a reduction of falls, and strong performance in services such as lung cancer care and endoscopy, we have the right people in place to make meaningful improvements for our patients and staff.”
Additional information
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If anyone has any concerns about care they are receiving, they can contact the Trusts Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
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The overall rating for St Mary’s Hospital remains Good.
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Inspectors visited in February 2026 to inspect urgent and emergency services, as well as medical care including older person’s medicine. This was a particularly challenging time for our services with high demand for care.
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The IWT’s four-hour performance during the year ranged from 68% to 78% against the nationally agreed improvement trajectory of 70%-78%.
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To provide additional context around ligature-risk, the Emergency Department environment is a purpose-built setting, developed with specialist input to minimise ligature risks as far as reasonably practicable within an acute setting. HBN 15‑01 (Accident and Emergency Departments) does not specify a requirement for anti‑ligature facilities within standard triage areas.
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Safe staffing was recognised as a challenge at the time of the inspection. We provided assurance which is acknowledged in the report around action taken to review staffing by drawing on the Safer Staffing Paper 2026, underpinned by the Safer Nursing Care Tool, endorsed by NICE. We have daily review processes to ensure safety based on operational demand across the hospital and in the community. Decisions are made to balance the risks being seen across the system as a whole and we continuously work with our system partners to ensure the provision of safe and effective care.
