Health bosses meeting weekly to help address medical concerns at Shropshire's hospitals

It comes after a number of recent serious incidents were highlighted at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.

Two of the incidents at SaTH in August related to 'diagnostic delays' and one to endoscopy washer disinfectors.

Addressing the trust's board at a meeting on Thursday, director for clinical effectiveness Dr Edwin Borman said: "We've looked at how incidents are reported and how they then are investigated and what learning points are derived."

He said health bosses now take part in weekly meetings to discuss any areas of concern so they can be dealt with accordingly.

Issues over screening for sepsis in the emergency departments and acute medical units were also raised to the board in a report from the quality and safety committee.

Brian Newman, from the committee, told the board: "We've come a long way to where we are now, however there was non-compliance to the application of the sepsis bundle."

He said it was a serious matter that needed to be addressed by the medical director, who had been ill and was not present for the committee's meeting last month.

Dr Borman said around one in 12 patients who should be screened for sepsis are not being and accepted that the situation needed to improve, adding: "It's now a matter for consistency."

It comes after an inspection of the trust's urgent and emergency units by the Care Quality Commission last year led to concerns over the treatment and recognition of sepsis, leading to 'urgent action' being taken.

The trust was forced to report weekly detailing its action to ensure the system in place for management of deteriorating patients and sepsis at PRH and RSH was effective.

At that time, Dr Borman said the trust had implemented an action plan focusing on the areas highlighted by the CQC, including the effective monitoring of patients that may be at risk of sepsis.

In his report to the board on Thursday, Mr Newman also welcomed the new CT scanner that is expected to be installed at PRH, however he said there was a wider issue around systems security which could lead to diagnostic equipment being open to cyber attacks.

The report said the board was addressing this through the digitisation agenda.