- NHS hospital
St Mary's Hospital
Assessment report published 16 July 2026
Contents
Ratings - Medical care (Including older people's care)
Our view of the service
On 10 to 11 February 2026, we carried out an assessment at St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight. This assessment was part of our Winter Pressures Programme where we inspected Medical Care and Urgent and Emergency Care. This report presents findings from visits to 11 wards and clinical areas within the Medical and Older People's Medicine directorate, at St Mary's Hospital. We spoke with 17 patients and 4 relatives or carers. We reviewed 15 sets of adult patient records and spoke with more than 30 staff members including consultants, resident doctors, nurses, senior leaders, healthcare assistants, administration staff, housekeeping staff, security staff and volunteers.
We assessed 27 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions and combined the scores with those from the previous assessment to give the rating.
Medical care was rated good overall at this assessment. Most key question ratings remain good, with ongoing strengths in person‑centred care, compassion and leadership. However, the safe key question is now rated requires improvement.
People were consistently treated with kindness, dignity and respect. They were involved in decisions about their care and supported to maintain independence and confidentiality.
Services generally met people's needs through good organisation and delivery. Care was person centred with efforts to adapt to changing needs and ensure equitable access.
Care and treatment were based on best available evidence, with a focus on achieving positive outcomes and quality of life.
Leadership was visible, credible and values driven. This promoted a culture of openness, learning and person-centred care. Governance systems were in place to support quality and improvement.
However, concerns relating to training compliance, safeguarding knowledge, staffing pressures and identified environmental risks. The recurring thread across the report relates to workforce oversight: training compliance, appraisals and staffing pressures suggesting leadership oversight has not fully kept pace with operational risk despite an otherwise strong culture. Additional areas for development include improving consistency in the use of translation services and establishing a more structured approach to meeting culturally and religiously diverse needs. While leadership remains a strength, further work is required to enhance oversight and ensure risks are consistently identified and mitigated.
At this assessment we identified breaches of regulations in relation to safeguarding. An action plan will be requested upon publication of the final report.
People's experience of this service
Patients and their family or carers were all positive about the staff treating them with warmth and kindness and providing effective care and treatment. With comments such as “everyone is kind here” and “I feel safe”. Patients felt staff were on hand if they needed them for help or support. People said they were involved in the planning of their care. They told us that the staff would listen to their individual needs and do their best to meet these.
The Family and Friends test for the previous 12 months showed that 98% of respondents were positive about the care received, with over a third of all patients, families and friends completing the survey.