We’re providing ‘pretty awful’ care, says CEO

A hospital trust is providing a “pretty awful” standard of care, its interim chief executive has declared.

The blunt statement was made by David Loughton – who joined University Hospitals of Liverpool Group in the summer – at a board meeting on Thursday.

He said there had been “enormous progress” with partners to fix some of its clinical problems, which had to be addressed before financial gaps could be tackled.

But he added: “I think you’ve got to take a cold, hard look at the quality we are providing at the present time, which is pretty awful.”

Pressed for examples, he said six patients had spent a day in the discharge lounge before returning to a hospital bed on Tuesday night “because we cannot get non-emergency ambulances” to transport them elsewhere.

He added: “I met in detail with the renal teams and some of the quality of what we’re providing to patients who are coming here three times a week for the foreseeable future [for dialysis] is really poor.”

But he said: “The problem here is it is not down to this organisation. I’ve come into this, and I can freely say… the system leaves an awful lot to be desired at how it works together, or it doesn’t work together, and we’ve got to fix some of the problems in the community to impact in the hospitals.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 21 September 2026