- NHS hospital
St Mary's Hospital
Assessment report published 16 July 2026
Contents
Ratings - Urgent and emergency services
Our view of the service
On the 10 and 11 February 2026 we carried out an inspection of urgent and emergency care services at St Mary’s Hospital which is operated by Isle of Wight NHS Trust. We inspected this service as part of the winter pressure program.
Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) was managed across the emergency department (ED) and children's emergency unit (CEU) collaboratively, serving to an island population of 140,000.
The department received patients from both the ambulance service and individuals self-presenting to the front door.
We spoke with 10 patients and 30 staff and reviewed 12 patient care and treatment records.
The service was in breach of the legal regulation relating to safe care and treatment, environment and governance.
We rated the service as Requires Improvement.
We found there was a lack of clinical oversight within the waiting room. During our visit, we observed patients in visible distress and had to request staff assistance for at least two individuals. This meant that patients were at risk of deteriorating without a clinical member of staff noticing. The trust was also not meeting NHS standard 95% of patients being seen within four hours.
During the inspection, we identified a number of environmental risks within the emergency department. We observed patients being cared for on beds positioned in corridors, including directly across the entrances to patient cubicles. This meant that staff were required to move corridor-based patients in order to access others within cubicles.
This arrangement posed a risk to patient safety, as it could delay timely access in the event of an emergency or clinical deterioration, and did not support safe patient flow or prompt clinical intervention.
The emergency department did not have access to ligature-free toilet facilities in either the adult or paediatric areas. The trust provided ligature risk assessments in response to our data request; however this did not include the adult and paediatric toilets which limited assurance that associated risks had been formally identified and mitigated.
However, the service had a proactive culture of safety and investigated and reported safety incidents. Staff worked well together to support people. The trust cared about and promoted the wellbeing of their staff and fostered a positive culture where people could speak up and their voice would be heard.
In instances where CQC has begun a process of regulatory action, we may publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded, if the action has been taken forward. If we have requested an action plan, this will be requested upon publication of the final report.
People's experience of this service
Patients and any family or carers with them were generally positive about the staff treating them with kindness and dignity and providing effective care and treatment. On occasions patients had to wait to be treated for a long time after an initial assessment. Most people and family or carers said that communication with them was good despite how busy the department was. People did not experience discrimination or inequality. However, people did not receive adequate clinical supervision whilst in the waiting room and some patients appeared to be in distress.