A hospital Trust has made improvements – but more needs to be done, according to inspectors.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals (SaTH) Trust at the end of last year and beginning of this year and was rated as ‘requiring improvement’.

Inspectors noted changes had been made since their visit in 2014, in particular across end of life care, which improved from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’, however they said the emergency departments at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford were still under pressure and short of consultants.

Chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said staff were to be “commended” for the improvements, but added: “The overall rating reflects the fact that the Trust still has some way to go on its improvement journey. There were a number of areas where action was needed, particularly with regard to maintaining appropriate staffing levels in the emergency department and ensuring a strong safety and learning culture within maternity services.

“At the time of our inspection, new senior leaders had started to make positive changes in the Trust’s maternity service, but more action is needed to ensure these changes are fully embedded and sustained.

“We have made it clear where we expect to see further improvement and the Trust knows what it must do to address the issues we have highlighted. We will continue to monitor Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and return to check on its progress.”

Simon Wright, chief executive at SaTH, said: “The CQC recognises a number of improvements since its last inspection. However, they still rated us a ‘requires improvement’.

“We recognise this as a fair and balanced report, and furthermore we will be encouraging the CQC to return to our hospitals to inspect areas that were not re-visited as part of the inspection as we know we have made other significant improvements.”

It comes as an annual report by NHS England rated Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group as still ‘requiring improvement’.