- NHS hospital
Warwick Hospital
Assessment report published 7 April 2026
Contents
Ratings - Medical care (Including older people's care)
Our view of the service
We carried out an assessment of medical care services provided at Warwick Hospital on 18 and 19 March 2025, as part of our system pathway pressures programme.
The medical care service at the trust includes specialist wards. This includes respiratory, frailty, assessment unit, cardiology and care of the elderly. The medical care services are managed and led by trust’s Urgent and Emergency Care Division.
During the inspection, we visited 12 clinical areas. We reviewed the environment, staffing levels and looked at care records and prescription records. We spoke with patients and family members and staff of different grades, including; nurses, doctors, ward managers and senior managers responsible for medical services. We reviewed performance information about the trust. We observed how care and treatment was provided.
We inspected 24 quality statements across the key questions Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led and have combined the score for each of these areas to give an updated rating.
We rated this service as Good overall.
There were enough staff to ensure people’s safety and meet their needs. People were supported to have choice and could give feedback on their care. We found examples of good care and patients felt they were treated with kindness. The trust took a system-wide approach to improvement.
However, we found 3 breaches of legal regulations in relation to safeguarding, safe care and treatment and governance. Staff had not always acted in line with guidance when using restrictive practices. Staff did not always assess risks to people's health and safety or mitigate them where identified. Governance systems and audits were not always effective in identifying or addressing areas for improvement. There were issues with record keeping systems across the service. Staff did not always receive a yearly appraisal.
Following our inspection, we took civil enforcement action to address these issues. In response, the trust provided assurances of actions they have taken and plan to take to address these areas and make improvements.
System Lens Findings
The service shared information with local partners and created joined up approaches to tackling wider pressures. For example, improving local frailty care pathways and utilising virtual wards to benefit older patients in the area.
Leaders worked with other services, including local ambulances, to address challenges the service and local system faced and offer support.
The trust harnessed partnership working with communities to make a positive impact for people. For example, the service had worked collaborative with the local Fire and Rescue Service to improve patients’ discharges.
People's experience of this service
Overall patients and families we spoke with were positive about the service and care they had received. We observed staff providing treatment to patients in a caring and supportive way. Staff were consistently praised for their kindness, professionalism, and attentiveness in the Family and Friends Test (FFT) results.
The trust supported John’s Campaign to highlight carers as experts in the person for whom they care for. We saw there was information displayed to raise awareness John’s Campaign and signposting for support for carers.
Some patients did tell us that they had not always been provided with information relating to their care. On one ward they had improved the provision of information to patients by introducing a patient welcome pack.
People said they did not feel anxious about raising concerns.
We tracked the experiences of 6 patients, the findings of which had been consolidated within the main body of the report.