"Staffing Levels" Key To Stopping Major Incident

27 November 2014, 10:05 | Updated: 27 November 2014, 10:07

A patient group says more staff and improving patient care are key to ensuring a major incident at Colchester Hospital does not happen again.

A patient group says more staff and improving patient care are key to ensuring a major incident at Colchester Hospital does not happen again.

The status was put in place two weeks ago after the Care Quality Commission raised "safeguarding concerns" about the A&E department during a surprise visit.

It was stood down yesterday after pressure on the service eased.

Dr Tom Nutt, the Chief Executive of Healthwatch Essex, said: "It's a question of addressing staffing levels, so the recruitment and retention of staff, but I think it's also a case of looking at how patients are treated and I think the question marks raised by the CQC around dignity and respect are crucial".

He adds that everyone has a role to play: "As patients and carers we need to think about how we use the NHS, but fundamentally the NHS has to be delivering a standard of care that we would expect for all patients regardless of where they present."