- NHS hospital
Sandwell Health Campus
Assessment report published 18 February 2026
Contents
Ratings - Urgent and emergency services
Our view of the service
We commenced an offsite assessment of the service in July 2024 together with an onsite assessment on the 3 and 4 September 2024. This was triggered by CQC receiving intelligence of concern. We used our focused assessment methodology for this assessment. We did not look at all the quality statements for all key questions. Patients who attended the emergency department and needed admitting experienced long waits in the department before admission to an inpatient bed. However, partnership working had reduced the time it took for ambulance crews to handover patients to the emergency department staff. The environment, on the day of the site assessment, was visibly clean and there were effective cleaning audits carried out. There was a supportive culture at local leadership level and staff were committed to provide care in challenging and pressured circumstances.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with 3 patients along with relatives and they told us they had experienced long delays in the department. Some had been waiting for many hours on the corridor waiting for a bed on a ward.