Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of special measures at Colchester General Hospital.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust has been receiving support from NHS Improvement to address specific issues at the Trust since entering Special Measures in November 2013.

In April 2016, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS Improvement agreed that partnership arrangements with Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust would be put in place to support improvement. The Chair and Chief Executive of Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust have assumed a dual role across both Trusts and have key staff working across the two organisations. Recent actions include the development of a Trust Turnaround programme (the ‘Every Patient Every Day’ programme). A multi-stakeholder Programme Oversight Committee, chaired by NHS Improvement and including the CQC has been established from July 2016, to monitor progress against an agreed set of Key Performance Indicators.

Efficacy of the support arrangements will be assessed by the CQC when it re-inspects in due course.