HEALTH watchdogs have praised the ‘outstanding’ critical care at a Southampton hospital following an inspection.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission gave the top rating to the critical care unit – which covers the general, neurosciences and cardiac intensive care units, surgical, respiratory and cardiac high dependency units, as well as the critical care outreach team – after visiting Southampton General Hospital earlier this year.

Surgery, end of life care, outpatients and radiology units were rated ‘good’, but the hospital’s safety was said to still “require improvement” as patient records and some medicines were not always stored securely, delays in repairs meant some wards were out of action “for months” and “palliative care medical staff levels were below expected levels”.

It comes two years after the CQCs previous visit, when inspectors said critical care, and the hospital overall, “required improvement”.

Responsiveness of urgent and emergency care and children’s services required improvement in 2015 and were not inspected again this year – meaning the category kept its rating.

Inspectors also said parking was “not always sufficient”, but praised the 1,000 hospital volunteers as “outstanding”.

Emergency care, medicine and services at Southampton Children’s Hospital, the Princess Anne Hospital and hospice Countess Mountbatten House kept their ‘good’ rating meaning the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) is rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall.

UHS chief executive Fiona Dalton, said: “These results are a tribute to everyone across the whole trust who has worked so hard and with such commitment to give the best possible care to our patients. Every day I see or hear examples of exceptional patient care and I know that these ratings are very well deserved.

“I am so proud to be chief executive of this hospital and I would like to say thank you to all of our staff for everything they do every day to make UHS a special place.”

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the chief inspector of hospitals, said: “I am delighted to report that we have found significant improvement in all the core services we inspected. University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has clearly put patients at the heart of all major decisions. The chief executive even holds patient lunches to gather people’s feedback and pass on any lessons.

“We found a trust which demonstrated a healthy impatience to improve – from the top down.”

He added: “We came across many examples where staff interactions with patients or relatives had exceeded expectations, not only clinical staff, but portering, catering and clerical staff too."

The trust is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in England, with an annual spend of £700 million. It cares for 1.9 million people living in Hampshire and offers specialist services to more than 3.7 million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands.

Every year more than 10,500 staff see 585,000 people at outpatient appointments, deal with 120,000 attendances at the emergency department and treat 150,000 admitted emergency, inpatient or day case patients.

A hospital spokesperson said providing these services costs £1.9 million per day.