Royal Albert Edward Infirmary

Ratings

• Overall

  Requires improvement

• Safe

  Requires improvement

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Requires improvement

• Well-led

  Requires improvement

Our view of the service

We carried out a comprehensive assessment of medical care (including older people’s care) and urgent and emergency services at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary (RAEI), which included an unannounced visit on 12 to 14 May 2026. The purpose of this assessment was to re-rate the regulated services at the location due to the age of the rating and to act on risks we identified through information of concern. The new ratings have been combined with the existing ratings of the other services delivered at this location . As a result of our assessment, the overall rating for the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary has changed from good to requires improvement.

The RAEI is a registered location of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL), located in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The hospital has over 450 beds and is the largest location managed by the trust, being the main site of delivery for a variety of activity including diagnostic and outpatient services, inpatient medical and surgical services, maternity and children’s services, and cancer therapies. With a 24-hour Emergency Department (ED), the hospital is also the main point of access for people in the area in need of emergency and urgent services.

Leaders told us that pressures in urgent and emergency services across the trust had grown in recent years. Patients using services were increasingly complex or frail, and the estate had a comparatively smaller bed base to meet the demand, compared to other nearby trusts. The hospital was an aged estate and offered limited space to expand, and so leaders had to be innovative in how and where activity was delivered.

At the point of the assessment, the trust had recently implemented significant organisational changes, which included a divisional reorganisation and new governance and management arrangements. As such, some aspects of the changes were not fully embedded and, in some cases, leadership posts were yet to be filled.

At this assessment we identified breaches of regulations. Our detailed findings can be found in the medical care (including older people’s care) and urgent and emergency services sections of this report. An action plan will be requested upon publication of the final report.