CQC inspectors were forced to seek assistance for distressed patients during an inspection of St Mary’s Hospital, prompting the regulator to issue a Warning Notice to Isle of Wight NHS Trust.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an unannounced inspection of urgent and emergency care and medical care at the Isle of Wight hospital in February as part of its Winter Pressures Programme.
While St Mary’s Hospital remains rated Good overall, urgent and emergency care has again been rated Requires Improvement. Inspectors identified breaches of regulations relating to safe care and treatment, the hospital environment and governance, while medical care was re-rated Good.
The CQC said it was particularly concerned that staff had limited visibility of patients waiting to be seen in the Emergency Department, leaving them unable to respond quickly if someone’s condition deteriorated. During the inspection, inspectors were forced to intervene after observing distressed patients in the waiting room, seeking assistance because staff were unable to effectively monitor those waiting to be seen.
The regulator has now issued a Warning Notice requiring the Trust to improve the clinical management of the waiting room.
Inspectors also found patients were regularly being cared for in corridor spaces, with some beds positioned across the entrances to treatment cubicles, potentially delaying emergency access to other patients when urgent treatment was needed.
Further concerns were raised over mental health safety within the department, with inspectors finding there were no ligature-free toilets available and that environmental risks had not been adequately managed for people experiencing a mental health crisis.
Patients were also facing significant delays, with the Trust failing to meet the NHS target of seeing people within 4 hours of arriving at A&E. Some patients waited more than 12 hours for an inpatient bed after the decision had been made to admit them.
Inspectors also identified serious safeguarding concerns. Training compliance for Adult Safeguarding Level 3 had fallen to just 39%, well below the Trust’s own target. During the inspection, 5 of the 6 staff members questioned were unable to explain the Trust’s process for responding to a safeguarding disclosure.
Staffing pressures were also found to be affecting patient care. Between June 2025 and February 2026, the Trust logged 121 staffing-related incidents linked to vacancies, sickness, workload pressures, unavailable bank staff and short-notice absences. Inspectors said patients assessed as needing one-to-one observation could not always receive it because of staffing shortages.
Despite the concerns, inspectors praised many aspects of care elsewhere in the hospital. Medical care, including older people’s services, has been re-rated Good, with the CQC highlighting compassionate staff, a positive learning culture and strong leadership.
Patients consistently described staff as kind and respectful, while the hospital achieved a 98% positive Friends and Family Test score over the previous 12 months.
Catherine Campbell, Deputy Director of Hospitals, Secondary and Specialist Care in the South West at the CQC, has said:
“At this inspection of St Mary’s Hospital, we found an emergency department where too many people faced long waits in unsuitable environments.
“Inspectors were concerned that staff had limited visibility of the waiting room and wouldn’t be able to respond quickly if people deteriorated. In fact, inspectors had to seek help for some distressed people during this visit.
“We found the trust wasn’t meeting the NHS standard for seeing people within four hours of them arriving at the emergency department. There were also long waits for people who were being admitted to hospital, with some people waiting more than 12 hours for a bed.
“We identified a number of environmental risks that leaders hadn’t addressed. Staff regularly had to place people in corridor spaces, which blocked access to cubicles and could delay timely access in the event of an emergency.
“We’ve told leaders where we expect to see rapid and continued improvements and issued a Warning Notice to focus their attention on the most urgent concern.”
The CQC said Isle of Wight NHS Trust has since submitted an action plan and provided assurances that work is underway to address the issues identified during the inspection.
Joe Robertson MP, for Isle of Wight East, says:
“I am sadly unsurprised by the CQC’s findings in relation to emergency care at St Mary’s Hospital. When I visited earlier in the year, I saw for myself people being treated on rows of trolleys and in unsuitable places like a converted cupboard. There were also ambulances parked outside with patients still in them because there was no space in the building. The staff were doing their absolute best in impossible circumstances.
“But the fact remains that one of the biggest contributing factors to this desperate situation is a crisis in social care meaning that people cannot be discharged to a safe home environment and around 25 percent of beds on the wards are occupied by people who do not have a medical reason for being there. Until the Government grasps this issue by better supporting our Council the crisis will not be solved. The Island is not a city. The funding rules that apply elsewhere do not work for us and the unique challenges we face.”
