Emergency care at Ipswich Hospital has been rated outstanding in a new report which has praised the services offered to patients at Heath Road.

Ipswich Hospital’s top-performing emergency department has been rated outstanding in a new report which praises the services offered to patients in east Suffolk.

Trust bosses last night welcomed the inspection result from the Care Quality Commission, which graded the hospital as “good” overall.

The “caring and compassionate staff” and ability of the hospital to “respond well” to increased activity, particularly during the challenging winter period, were also highlighted.

The outstanding rating for the emergency care has come at a time when many centres fail to hit the Government’s waiting time target.

During the colder months, Ipswich’s unit hit the mark of seeing and treating or admitting 95% of patients in four hours a number of times – it was recently named one of the top performing emergency departments in the country.

Nick Hulme, chief executive at the hospital, said: “We welcome this highly detailed report which finds much to praise about both the staff of the hospital and the care which is given to patients in all of the services inspected.

“It is a testament to each and every one of the team here in the hospital, including our staff and volunteers, that we have been rated outstanding for urgent and emergency care, and achieved a good overall rating.

“The report’s recommendations are extremely helpful in taking us forward for the future.”

Dave Hartin, clinical lead for emergency medicine and consultant in emergency care, added: “We are delighted that the CQC inspection report has recognised the quality of care that is provided through the Emergency Department.

“All of our staff work tirelessly in a challenging environment striving for excellence in emergency care. We are proud of the things that we do well while at the same time recognising areas that can still be improved.

“We believe that we can raise the standards of care that we provide to our patients and the report gives us a tremendous opportunity to go from good to great.”

CQC inspectors, who visited Ipswich Hospital in early January, now rate health care providers on a scale ranging from outstanding to inadequate.

Ipswich Hospital was rated as good for its medical care, critical care, maternity and gynaecology, end of life care, and outpatients and diagnostic imaging.

It was rated as “requires improvement” for its services for children and young people and outstanding for urgent and emergency services, giving it an overall grading of good.

In terms of children and young people’s services, inspectors said staff were caring, but that more work was needed to “embed and demonstrate a learning culture”.

It added that improvement was needed in the provision of a service for children with more complex needs. Also, although it is not commissioned to provide high dependency care for extremely sick children, the CQC has suggested there is a local need for the service.

Mr Hulme said: “The report shows that the quality of care given to children and young people is of a high standard but there is work to do in implementing recent new national guidance as soon as possible.”

Professor Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, added: “While some areas for improvement have been highlighted to the leadership at the trust, particularly regarding safety and effectiveness, overall this is a good trust providing caring and responsive services that are well led. The trust knows what action it now needs to take to make any improvements.”