STAFFING shortages have been identified as an area of a concern at a hospital trust which inspectors say must make improvements.

Bosses at the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, which provides services for about 400,000 people across Hartlepool, Stockton and parts of County Durham, have been told to ensure there are enough suitably qualified staff to deliver “safe care in a timely manner”.

But the Royal College of Nurses pointed out the trust had – in line with all other trusts – only recently been issued with guidance by NHS regulator Monitor to cut staffing in order to balance the books.

A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), based on last July's inspection, found areas of good and outstanding practice with staff going the extra mile to improve patient support.

But overall the trust was rated as ‘requiring improvement’. The University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, and University Hospital, Hartlepool, have been told to make improvements, but the trust’s community services and services provided at the One Life Centre Minor Injuries Unit both received an overall 'good' rating.

Aside from staffing shortages on some wards, other concerns included failing to always follow infection control procedures in the accident and emergency department.

Management of medicines was also highlighted with inspectors finding medicines were not always stored at the correct temperature and staff were sometimes failing to sign records showing drugs had been administered.

On staffing, the CQC said there was an over-reliance on ‘bank’ and agency staff. In 2014/15 £5m was spent covering essential nursing and medical staff posts.

Out of 85 individual ratings, 65 were rated as good. Areas identified as good practice included the critical care team’s approach to tissue and organ donation and the setting up of a training suite to simulate surgery procedures.

CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said: “The trust leadership knows what it needs to do to bring about improvement and our inspectors will return at a later date to check on what progress has been made.”

Alan Foster, chief executive of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Naturally we are disappointed with the rating.

“We are working hard with the aim that, should the services be visited again, the trust’s overall rating will improve.”

A trust spokeswoman said it had an ongoing recruitment programme to fill any vacant nursing posts.

She added: “The need to make patient safety a priority has filtered through the whole organisation and we are confident that we are continuously improving.”

Jake Turnbull, a spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing Northern region, said: “The CQC have made it clear that staff are delivering the best they can with the resources they have.”