THE Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals have been identified as ‘high risk’ by a health watchdog, meaning they may not be offering safe, good quality care to patients.

The Care Quality Commission has given every hospital trust in England a new risk rating, with 44 authorities listed in the worst banding.

Two major inspections have made wide-ranging criticisms of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which is already in special measures.

The ‘elevated risks’ listed by the CQC included the ‘potential under-reporting of patient safety incidents’ and the mortality rates for cardiological, cerebrovascular and gastroenterological conditions.

Last week, patient champion Russ McLean called for bosses to resign, after the CQC found the trust’s emergency services to be failing three out of four national standards. This followed an inspection in late July, just eight days after the trust was placed in special measures.

Ian Wooley, a former chairman of the trust, said: “The trust should not need to be told by any external inspectors that they are failing national standards. They should have known this from their own quality control. These are minimum standards and I’m astonished they were missed. The whole organisation needs to pull its boots up.”

Chief executive Mark Brearley said: “All trusts in special measures have been put in Band 1 (High Risk). We have a robust action plan in place and report regularly to the NHS Trust Development Agency and our health economy partners as we introduce sustainable improvements.”