A SPECIALIST unit at Salisbury District Hospital which received a “requires improvement” rating from inspectors is making “significant progress”.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors raised concern over the spinal unit during an inspection of the hospital in December 2015.

Publishing their report last April, they said spinal patients waited too long for specialist services and there was little risk assessment of the patients who were waiting.

Speaking at a Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust board meeting last Monday, chief executive Cara Charles-Barks said: “As you’re aware we had some challenging feedback around our spinal services with a number of improvements we needed to make.

“The team has been working really hard on improving those services and following a recent revisit, the CQC is satisfied with the progress the spinal team has made in reducing the backlog of patients who needed follow up after discharge from the centre and that risk assessments and a system of prioritisation were in place.

“They found that rigorous governance and performance arrangements were now embedded and reviewed regularly and recognised good leadership and a positive culture in the spinal centre.

“This is an excellent achievement that reflects the hard work and commitment of staff in the spinal centre and I want to thank all the teams involved.”

Other services labelled by the CQC as ‘requires improvement’ following the main inspection included the emergency and urgent services, surgery, critical care, the neonatal unit and maternity.

Mrs Charles-Barks said: “We are making steady progress on the action plan that was put in place following the publication of our CQC report last year and over the next few months we will be looking closely at what needs to be done to improve our current rating and prepare for planned changes in the inspection process.”