- NHS hospital
The Countess of Chester Hospital
Assessment report published 31 July 2026
Contents
Ratings - End of life care
Our view of the service
We carried out an unannounced on-site comprehensive assessment of end-of-life care services at The Countess of Chester Hospital on 27 to 29 October 2025.
This assessment was prompted due to the time since the last inspection of the service (2016) under a different assessment framework.
The trust provided a consultant led specialist palliative care team [SPCT]. The SPCT team supported all clinical areas across the Countess of Chester Hospital and Ellesmere Port Hospital, providing specialist palliative care, advice and support for adult inpatients who were affected by cancer and other life limiting illnesses.
The SPCT provided an advisory and supportive service, whilst the medical and nursing management of the patient remained the responsibility of the ward teams. The SPCT provided trust staff with the support and guidance to facilitate the transfer of the patient from the curative to the palliative approach for their incurable illness. The trust had a bereavement team who provided support to relatives following the death of those close to them.
The team had established links with charitable and voluntary organisations providing hospice care, counselling and bereavement support across the local area.
During the assessment we spoke with staff, leaders and people who used the service. We looked at care records, policies and procedures, complaints and incidents and we observed patient care.
We reviewed 16 patient clinical records, spoke with 21 members of staff and 6 patients and family members.
The rating for this assessment reflects the end-of-life care delivered to inpatients across the trust as a whole.
We rated the service as good. We found the service was in breach of the legal regulation person-centred care. Evidence showed there were no advanced care plans for end of life care patients. This meant patients preferred care and place of death were not taken into consideration.
We requested an action plan following publication of the final report.
People's experience of this service
We received mixed views from patients and relatives about the care and treatment they had experienced.
We were told staff were supportive and treated them with respect and kindness.
We were told communication could be a challenge in trying to speak to specialist clinical staff about end-of-life care and treatment.