All of England’s worst-performing hospitals are today named and shamed by our damning analysis.
MailOnline’s huge audit — laid bare in an interactive map that allows you to search your own area — reveals that 268 NHS and private-run sites are giving patients sub-standard care.
Twenty-three sites, highlighted as red, were ranked ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which regulates all hospitals in the country.
Inspectors at one, the Alexandra Private Hospital in Derbyshire, ‘were not assured’ anatomical waste was disposed of correctly. Staff gave ‘conflicting accounts’ over how long un-refrigerated waste was left being before collected.
Another — the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, one of the NHS hospitals at the centre of Britain’s worst ever maternity scandal — was found to ‘not always’ have cared for deceased bodies before they arrived at the mortuary.
MailOnline’s huge audit — laid bare in an interactive map that allows you to search your own area — reveals that dozens of NHS and private-run sites are giving patients sub-standard care. One — the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (pictured), one of the NHS hospitals at the centre of Britain’s worst maternity scandal — was found to not to ‘not always’ have cared for deceased bodies before they arrived at the mortuary
Inspectors at another — Alexandra Private Hospital in Derbyshire — ‘were not assured’ that anatomical waste was disposed of correctly, with staff providing ‘conflicting accounts’ of how long un-refrigerated waste was left being before collected
Deceased patients arrived ‘in an undignified manner’, inspectors wrote, having a ‘significant and potentially highly upsetting’ impact on visiting families.
The other 245 hospitals, marked orange on the map, were classed as ‘requires improvement’ in their most recent inspection report.
The investigation into England’s sub-par health facilities is the latest in a string of MailOnline exposés.
Last week we performed an audit on the worst-performing community pharmacies in Britain.
Earlier this year, MailOnline also mapped every CQC-ranked ‘inadequate’ and ‘requires improvement’ GP surgery.
The CQC watchdog carries out regular inspections of every hospital in the country.
It rates each hospital as either ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ based on five criteria.
These include assessing whether services are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The overall hospital rating does not necessarily mean that every service at the site performs at that level.
Of the 245 rated as requiring improvement by the regulator, over half (132) were NHS hospitals. The other were private.
Meanwhile, among the 23 rated inadequate, seven were NHS while 16 were private.
Services these private hospitals offer include dental diagnostics and screening tests, 2D and 4D pregnancy ultrasound scans and cosmetic surgery.
One in 10 patients in the UK now pay for private treatment in the UK — a rise of 39 per cent over the past two years — with millions now bypassing their own GP or hospital completely as they struggle to get appointments.
The NHS trusts with hospitals rated inadequate 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 ‘inadequate’.
It comes as a damning audit of England’s crumbling NHS hospitals earlier this year revealed urine and faecal matter had been found seeping into wards, pouring through ceilings and spewing out of drains.
One NHS hospital trust had also recorded 105 sewage leaks alone in 2022 — almost one every three days.
The Liberal Democrats, which compiled the data, found NHS trusts recorded a total of 456 leaks between January and December 2022.
In March a survey of NHS staff also found just 62.9 per cent of 636,000 workers polled felt that if a friend or relative needed treatment, they would be happy with the standard provided.
Experts at the time said the findings were ‘no surprise’ and warned 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 ‘inadequate’ account for around 11 per cent of all the 2,393 registered hospitals in England.
MP Daisy Cooper, health spokesperson for the Lib Dems, told MailOnline: ‘The Conservatives have been running our NHS into the ground for years.
‘Not only are waiting times for treatment being pushed into the danger zone, but people are struggling even to see their GP and dentist, and now even the hospitals are falling apart.’
She added: ‘This Government has time and time again let our health service down. They have over promised and under delivered for too long.
‘Their promise of 40 new hospitals isn’t worth the paper it was written on as hospital buildings literally crumble away and some wards have now become unusable.
‘Conservative Ministers owe the public an apology for failing to deliver their promises on the NHS and putting patients in danger.’
A CQC spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Most people are getting good, safe care, and that’s down to the efforts of those working across the NHS and independent sector.
‘Through our inspection and monitoring of hospital services we have been consistently impressed by 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: ‘Sadly however, safe and good care is not always experienced by everyone and there’s more work to be done to ensure the delivery of safe care for all, every time.
‘Where we find concerns that care needs to improve we make that clear to hospitals and we expect them to take action in response.’
An NHS spokesperson said: ‘Staff across the NHS are dedicated to providing the best care for patients with the vast majority of NHS hospitals rated “good” or “outstanding”.
‘While most providers rated inadequate are run privately, the NHS offers intensive support to help trusts work through CQC recommendations to improve services. ‘