THE boss at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital has pledged to up its game after an inspector warned "deteriorating or seriously ill" patients are at "serious risk" due to shortcomings in A&E.

The Chief Inspector of Hospitals gave Musgrove a good overall grading in its Care Quality Commission report, but judged a number of areas 'require improvement', with one 'inadequate'.

Professor Sir Mike Richards said he will continue to monitor the Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust's performance and return to check on progress.

Safety was labelled 'inadequate' in urgent and emergency services and 'requires improvement' in all other areas except end of life care and outpatients and diagnostic imaging, which are 'good'.

All units were 'good' overall, apart from urgent and emergency services and end of life care, which 'require improvement'.

While safety overall 'requires improvement', caring is deemed 'outstanding' and all other areas are 'good'.

Professor Sir Mike Richards said: "There is a strong patient-centred culture which permeates through Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

"Our inspectors saw that staff were overwhelmingly caring and compassionate in their dealings with people in their care.

"The trust's senior leadership team have developed a culture of learning, especially from incidents which enables risks to people to be reduced where possible.

"However, there are some services where improvements are required.

"I recognise that some of the original buildings dating back to the 1940s wartime hospital can present challenges in trying to meet current standards of healthcare.

"In the emergency department, patients were not always assessed promptly by a member of the clinical staff and the care environment for children was not suitable.

"Staffing arrangements were not in place to ensure suitable care and treatment was provided to children and babies."

He added that the poor accuracy and timeliness of patient risk assessments in A&E "presents serious risks to patients who are deteriorating or seriously ill".

The inspection team found that patients receive effective care and treatment for their needs, while the recruitment of 100 overseas nurses in the past year has helped reduce the amount of bank and agency staff used.

Musgrove chief executive Dr Sam Barrell said staff are well-known for their "kind, compassionate and respectful" treatment of patients and welcomed the good overall rating in the face of increased demand and tight finances.

Referring to the chief inspector's call for certain improvements, Dr Barrell added: "We have already done a huge amount to make improvements in areas highlighted to us by the commission.

"We have made a series of changes to our processes in the emergency department to build in extra safeguards and improved the environment there.

"Some of the improvements have been made immediately, and others will take a bit of time to bed in.

"We are absolutely committed to making these changes so that our care for patients remains of the very highest standard."