THE crisis-hit trust running Redditch's Alexandra Hospital has been told it must make urgent improvements following a backlog of 36,000 x-rays has been revealed.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been warned that it could face further action from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following a surprise inspection earlier this year.

The Advertiser reported in July that the health watchdog discovered the trust had failed to report on more than 11,000 vital x-rays, posing a potential risk to patients because it may have delayed treatment.

The inspection was carried out on July 27 in response to concerns around the length of time being taken to report on routine and urgent plain film x-ray examinations as well as plans in place to manage the backlog.

There were also concerns relating to staffing in the department.

A report published by the CQC last week says the significant backlog, closer to 36,000 in total, dated back to 2013, and there was nothing in place to reduce it in any way.

It also stated that the trust board had "no knowledge" of the backlog.

The x-rays had been carried out at the Alex Hospital, as well as the Worcestershire Royal and Kidderminster Hospital.

Chief Inspectors of Hospitals professor Sir Mike Richards has now used the CQC’s urgent enforcement powers to protect people using radiology services by ordering the trust to make urgent improvements to ensure patients are protected.

Professor Richards, said: "At the time we inspected, we were concerned that patients using Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust’s radiology services were experiencing a poor level of care and treatment.

"The board had no oversight or knowledge of the backlog meaning we were not assured that there were suitable governance and escalation processes in place to protect patients from potential harm.

“There were not robust procedures in place to trigger the escalation of risk caused by these lengthy delays in reporting. Lessons were not being learnt from incidents and safety goals had not been set."

He added that the trust has sent reports to demonstrate the progress made in clearing the backlog and this was being looked at last week during another inspection by the CQC which will include an assessment of the progress the trust has made.

The results of that inspection are due out next year.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust apologised for any distress caused.

"We can confirm that the backlog concerns a secondary review of x-rays with the majority of these x-rays having been reviewed by the requesting clinician, mostly on the same day, to determine the patient’s care plan," he said.

“Following the CQC visit in July 2016 to our radiology department, we have responded promptly to the concerns raised and can confirm that the plain film backlog is now cleared.

“Our processes have been reviewed and strengthened, radiographer staffing levels are improved and we are now working to a standard of reporting all urgent X-rays within two days and all other ‘routine’ X-rays within two weeks.”

The inspection is available via cqc.org.uk/location/RWP50.