Conditions placed on King’s Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have been lifted.

The CQC rated the hospital trust ‘inadequate’ - its lowest rating - in a 2018 inspection, and this rating was retained in inspections in 2019 and 2020.

Now, three of the seven ‘section 31’ conditions placed on the trust have been lifted, after improvements were made to the hospital’s maternity & midwifery services, diagnostic imaging service and emergency department.

Eastern Daily Press: Covid rules will remain in place beyond July 19 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn.Covid rules will remain in place beyond July 19 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn. (Image: QEH)

Chief executive Caroline Shaw said in a Tuesday meeting of the trust’s board of directors that the condition-lifting marked “a really important development” in the trust’s journey of improvement.

She added: “I actually spoke to our regional CQC person in the last week and she said it’s unheard of that conditions are lifted so well and so thoughtfully, through a precedent of a pandemic, and she applauded us on the work that we’re doing at the trust.”

In a report published ahead of the meeting, Ms Shaw wrote: “We are confident that when our CQC colleagues visit QEH, which we now expect will be before Christmas, the remaining four Section 31 conditions will also be lifted.”