- NHS hospital
Queens Hospital
Assessment report published 4 September 2026
Contents
Ratings - Urgent and emergency services
Our view of the service
The Queen’s Hospital Burton is a type 1 emergency department situated in the town of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. It is part of the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust. Located in Staffordshire close to the borders of Derbyshire and Leicestershire, the Emergency Department (ED) receives ambulance patients from two different ambulance trusts across the midlands. Children were not ordinarily conveyed by ambulance to Queen’s Hospital Burton. Self-presenting patients attended from Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire.
The ED had 2 entrances. One walk-in for self-presenting patients and one for ambulances. Patients not arriving by ambulance accessed the reception area located in the main waiting room. Seriously ill patients arriving by ambulance could be taken to one of 3 resuscitation bays or to a “pitstop” area where their condition would be assessed. From these areas patients with greater needs would be sent to the “majors” area while others were streamed to the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), the Primary Care Hub or the Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) ward. SDEC was for patients who could be treated and sent home the same day and did not need a hospital bed.
Average attendances to the department were around 200 to 220 patients a day, of which 50 to 60 came by ambulance, the balance being self-presentations.
We inspected the department on 9 and 10 February 2026. The inspection team consisted of a lead inspector, a team inspector and a medicines inspector. We were accompanied by a senior nurse and an emergency department consultant and a paediatric nurse who acted as specialist advisors.
We carried out this inspection as part of our Urgent and Emergency Care Winter Pathway Programme. In line with this methodology, we inspected 25 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led key questions and have combined the scores for these areas with scores from the last inspection to give the rating.
During our assessment visit we visited all areas of the emergency department plus other areas relevant to the service provided such as the adjacent X-ray department. We ensured that patients who were being supervised by ambulance staff but were patients of the hospital were being kept safe and being well cared for.
During our assessment visit we interviewed 48 members of staff, spoke in detail to 13 patients and 3 relatives, and we looked at 20 sets of notes.
At this inspection the rating for Urgent and emergency services stayed the same as requires improvement. Effective and well led stayed the same as good. Caring went down from good to requires improvement, while safe and responsive stayed the same as requires improvement. We identified breaches of 3 regulations around the failure to provide timely treatment and suitable medicines storage; not always having safe staffing levels; and lack of privacy and dignity.
People's experience of this service
Patients and any family or carers with them were mostly positive about the treatment they had received although many commented on the time they had needed to wait. Almost all patients commented positively on the staff who had looked after them and most spoke of their kindness and empathy. While patients said they were waiting for assessment, tests or treatment, they told us staff usually attended quickly to their immediate needs.
The department carried out patient satisfaction surveys titled “Your Views Matter”. When they did this, they recorded and analysed attributes of the studied population including diversity, protected characteristics and other descriptors, such as previous or current service in the armed forces. This information was analysed and, if necessary, changes made.
The overall figures for the main ED over 9 months prior to our visit showed that 74% of patients described their care as good or better A separate survey was carried out for the same day emergency care (SDEC) area of the department, and the overall figures were 92% of patients saying their care was good or better.