The hospital trust serving patients in Ledbury and throughout Herefordshire has been put into "special measures" after a Care Quality COmmission (CQC) report identified a a plethora of concerns.

A report into Wye Valley NHS Trust published this morning outlines concerns about services in A&E and medical care at Hereford County Hospital.

While areas of good practice and “hard-working” staff were recognised, the CQC found that overall services were inadequate and recommended that the Trust receives support under special measures to deliver long term improvements to patient care.

That support will come from the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA).

The report reveals the findings of a in inspection carried out by the CQC in June.

Already, there is a plan to “partner” the trust with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

The trust will be required to publish an improvement plan detailing all the actions to achieve improvements to services, with oversight from the NHS TDA and CQC.

A dedicated “improvement director” will be appointed to act on the trust’s behalf.

Dr Andy Andy Watts, head of the Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said that were a number of actions the TDA could take.

“We will find out what these will be in the coming days or weeks. But as commissioners and local GPs we are absolutely committed to supporting whatever actions are necessary to improve NHS services for our patients,” he said.

The trust is expected to respond to the report later this morning.

More soon.