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Royal Cornwall Hospital

Provider Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust Type NHS Healthcare Organisation Region South West Last inspected 29 Aug 2025

Location rating: Requires Improvement  View location on CQC

Location ratings by domain

Five CQC key questions

Ratings held for this CQC location under the Single Assessment Framework, assessed 29 August 2025. Ratings extracted from individual reports are shown separately below.

Safe
Requires Improvement
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Requires Improvement
Well-led
Requires Improvement

CQC assessments indexed

Single Assessment Framework

From 2024 CQC rates services through ongoing assessments rather than comprehensive inspections.

Requires Improvement
The service is not performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.
Date of assessment: 8 to 9 April 2025. Royal Cornwall Hospital provides a range of NHS hospital services. The assessment looked at medical care services and urgent and emergency care services as part of the System Pathway Pressures programme. We rated medical care services and urgent and emergency care services as requires improvement. The rating for medical care services and urgent and emergency care services has been combined with ratings of the other services from the last inspections. See our previous reports to get a full picture of all other …

Ratings by service

Medical care (Including older people's care)
Requires Improvement
Feb 2025
Medical care (Including older people's care)
Requires Improvement
Feb 2025
Urgent and emergency services
Requires Improvement
Feb 2025
Urgent and emergency services
Requires Improvement
Feb 2025
Medical care (Including older people's care)
Requires Improvement
Jun 2024
Urgent and emergency services
Requires Improvement
May 2024

Regulatory breaches & enforcement

Current-framework "must do" equivalent

Breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, stated verbatim in the CQC assessment.

Breaches identified (3)

Breach Overall
We found three breaches of regulation where care and treatment was not always provided in a safe and timely way in line with clinical guidance.
· 29 Aug 2025
Breach Caring
We found 5 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe delivery of care and treatment, premises and equipment, staffing, dignity and respect, and good governance.
Regulation: Regulation 10 (Dignity and respect) · 29 Aug 2025
Breach Overall
We found two breaches of regulation where care and treatment was not always provided in a safe and timely way in line with clinical guidance and in an area of the department or correct specialty where it is safe to do so.
· 23 Oct 2024

Most recent report indexed for actions

The date and rating here are from an individual report, not necessarily the location's latest assessment. Report ratings are extracted with AI; verify the original PDF.

Type: Location
Date: 27 February 2023
Rating extracted from this report: Requires Improvement
Actions indexed: 6 should-do

Read this inspection PDF

AI-extracted 3 Jun 2026

Earlier inspection findings

pre-2024 framework · 6 should-do

Should-do actions (6)

Recommended improvements to enhance service quality.

Should-do action 1 of 6
Should do
Safe
The serviceshouldensuredailychecksarecompletedandaccurate,includingensuringthatmedicineandequipmentischeckedforexpirydates.
Should-do action 2 of 6
Should do
Safe
The serviceshouldensureallrecordsaredocumentedinfull,includingstafftoidentifytheirdesignation,signanddateallentries.
Should-do action 3 of 6
Should do
Safe
The serviceshouldevaluatecurrenttrainingprovisionforemergencyevacuationofthebirthpoolandensurebirthpoolevacuationsimulationsarecarriedouttoensureallstaffareconfidentandproficienttocarryoutthisprocedureinanemergency.
Should-do action 4 of 6
Should do
Safe
The serviceshouldensurestaffareawareofthebabyabductionpolicy,thepolicyisstrengthenedtoincludepreventativemeasures,andthatstaffofalllevelsareinvolvedinlivesimulations.
Should-do action 5 of 6
Should do
Safe
The serviceshouldconsiderthefacilitiesavailableandanywaytoimproveandmodernisethespaceavailabletoensurethesafestlayouttoprovidecare,includingdecluttering.
Should-do action 6 of 6
Should do
Safe
The serviceshouldensurecleardocumentationandguidanceisavailabletostaffregardingmidwifeexemptionandpatientgroupdirectivemedicine.