Updated
18 July 2025
Medical Care (including older people's care) at the University Hospital Aintree are provided by Liverpool
University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The trust was created on 1 October 2019 following a process of acquisition, in which Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust acquired Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospital NHS Trust. University Hospital Aintree was last partially inspected (safe, responsive and well-led) in September 2023, but not rated.
We carried out an unannounced assessment of Medical Care (including older people's care) at University Hospital Aintree on 1, 2 and 3 October 2024. The assessment focussed on a number of quality statements under the safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led domains. Following the assessment, overall rating of University Hospital Aintree remains requires improvement and the effective domain has changed from requires improvement to good.
Medical care (Including older people's care)
Updated
14 July 2025
We carried out an unannounced assessment of Aintree University Hospital on 1 to 15 October 2024. This assessment was undertaken in line with our assessment priorities as part of our well led assessment. We assessed the following service groups:
• Medical care, including older people’s care
Overall, the service was rated as good.
We conducted an on-site, assessment visit at Aintree University Hospital medical care and reviewed the medical assessment unit and medical wards. We assessed quality statements from the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. The service provided and maintained safe systems of care, in which safety was managed, monitored, and assured.
The service was previously rated as requires improvement in March 2024 and it is now rated as good.
We looked at 20 sets of patient clinical records; we spoke with 30 patients, family members or friends; and we spoke with 39 members of staff.
We assessed quality statements within key questions. Each quality statement assessed is awarded a score. Details on how we score can be found on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/howwe-do-our-job/ratings
You can find further information about we carried out our assessments at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/ about-us/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection
Urgent and emergency services
Updated
7 November 2024
We carried out an unannounced assessment of University Hospital Aintree on 10 and 11 December 2024. We carried out this assessment in line with our assessment priorities. We assessed the following service groups:
- Urgent and emergency care
Overall, the service was rated as good.
We conducted an on-site, assessment visit at University Hospital Aintree Urgent and Emergency Care Services which included access, flow, and care of patients in the temporary escalation areas. We assessed all the quality statements from the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions. The service provided and maintained safe systems of care, in which safety was managed, monitored, and assured.
The service was previously rated as inadequate in 2021 and it is now rated as good. It was last partially inspected to follow up on previous enforcement action in September 2023, but it was not rated at that time.
We looked at 10 sets of patient clinical records; we spoke with 8 patients; we spoke with 8 family members or friends; and we spoke with 16 members of staff.
We assessed quality statements within key questions. Each quality statement assessed is awarded a score. Details on how we score can be found on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-do-our-job/ratings
You can find further information about we carried out our assessments at:https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection
Updated
16 May 2014
The critical care department at the hospital was providing safe and effective care. There were sufficient numbers of competent staff in place to meet patients’ needs in accordance with national guidance.
There was senior medical expertise available to patients over 24 hours, seven days a week. Multi-disciplinary team working was well established that supported optimal care for patients. Care was planned and delivered to meet individual needs.
Staff were caring and compassionate, patients and relatives spoke highly of the care they had received.
The Intensive Care Unit was the base for a medical emergency outreach team that was able to provide expert advice to help staff manage patients in all wards and departments whose conditions had deteriorated.
Updated
7 March 2018
Our rating of this service went down. We rated it as requires improvement because:
A summary of our findings about this service appears in the Overall summary.
Outpatients and diagnostic imaging
Updated
16 May 2014
Overall patients received safe and appropriate care in the department. The outpatient areas were clean and well maintained and measures were taken to control and prevent infection. The outpatient department was adequately staffed by a professional and caring staff team
Staff working in the department respected patient’s privacy and treated patients with dignity and respect. Patients told us they were generally satisfied with the service they received.
However, we found that waiting times for appointments were long in some departments and there will still considerable numbers of cancelled and rearranged appointments.
The trust reported three serious incidents that occurred in the department between December 2012 and November 2013 that resulted from outpatient appointment delays. This had resulted in delayed diagnosis for three patients when treatment could have been provided at an earlier date. We saw the hospital had investigated the causes of these incidents and had introduced improvements to prevent this type of incident happening again.