82.9% treated within 62 days · standard 85% · About this data
Diagnostics
Below NHS standard
16.0% waiting 6+ weeks · standard 1.0% or fewer · About this data
Mortality (SHMI)
As expected
Screening indicator, not a death rate — a prompt to investigate, not proof of poor care · About this data
In plain English
AI-generated
Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust reported 8,847 A&E attendances in July 2026, with 61.2% of patients treated within four hours. In June 2026, the trust had 29,783 patients on its waiting list, and 67.8% were seen within 18 weeks of referral.
Automatically generated from the official figures on this page and checked to restate only those figures. Last generated 17 August 2026. This is a plain-English summary, not medical advice. About these summaries
CQC ratings by service
CQC rated these services individually — there is no single overall rating for this location.
Critical careGood
Safe
Good
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Requires improvement
Well-led
Good
rated June 2016
MaternityRequires improvement
Safe
Requires improvement
Effective
Requires improvement
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Requires improvement
rated February 2024
Outpatients and diagnostic imagingGood
Safe
Good
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Good
rated June 2016
Services for children & young peopleRequires improvement
▲ 109 vs yr agoBetter than 21% of trustsData: Jul 2026
NHS England publishes waiting-time and A&E figures per trust, not per building — figures marked Trust-wide cover all hospitals run by Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Performance over time
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · hover a month for the exact figure · monthly data table
Total waiting list
Incomplete pathways, all specialties
Waiting under 18 weeks
Share of the waiting list
A&E seen within 4 hours
All department types
A&E performance
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Latest month: July 2026· all A&E department types combined — the official headline basis.
A&E attendances
8,847
All department types · latest month
Seen within 4 hours
61.2%
All department types · NHS standard: 95%
Waited over 12 hours
612
From decision-to-admit ('trolley waits')
Emergency admissions
3,291
All department types · latest month
Major A&E only (Type 1)
Attendances
6,079
Seen within 4 hours
51.1%
The all-types headline above includes minor-injury units and urgent treatment centres (Type 3), which typically report much higher 4-hour performance and lift the combined figure. This narrower figure covers only the main, consultant-led A&E department run by Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust— Type 1 in NHS England's classification.
Department type
Attendances
Within 4 hours
All types (official headline)
8,847
61.2%
Type 1 — major A&E
6,079
51.1%
Type 3 — minor injury / UTC
2,768
83.3%
Source: NHS England A&E Attendances & Emergency Admissions. About this data
Cancer waiting times
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Latest month: June 2026.
Faster diagnosis (28 days)
86.0%
1,381 of 1,605 treated in time
Target 75% · meets target
Treatment within 62 days
82.9%
133 of 161 treated in time
Target 85% · below target
Treatment within 31 days
95.3%
162 of 170 treated in time
Target 96% · below target
Treated within 62 days
Urgent referral to first treatment
Faster diagnosis (28 days)
Referral to diagnosis or ruling-out
Treated within 31 days
Decision to treat to first treatment
Source: NHS England Cancer Waiting Times. The 62-day standard is urgent referral to first treatment; the 28-day faster-diagnosis standard is referral to diagnosis or ruling-out. About this data
Patient experience (Friends & Family Test)
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Latest month: June 2026· a voluntary, monthly feedback survey — the figure is the share of respondents who rated their experience 'good' or 'very good'. Response rates are often low and respondents are self-selected, not a representative sample, so read this alongside the clinical measures above, not on its own.
2025 · the views of staff who work at this trust — a measure of workforce culture, morale and confidence, not a direct measure of clinical outcomes. There is no official NHS target for these figures, so they are shown as context, never a pass or fail.
Staff happy for a friend or relative to be treated here
48.8%
Agreed · 2025 NHS Staff Survey▼ 2.3 pts vs 2024Median English trust: 63.9%
Staff engagement
6.27
out of 10 · 2025
Would recommend as a place to work
41.4%
Agreed · 2025
The NHS Staff Survey records the views of staff who chose to respond — a measure of workforce culture, morale and staff confidence, not a direct measure of clinical outcomes or safety. Response rates vary between trusts. England only; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate staff surveys on a different basis, so these figures are never compared across nations.
Source: NHS Staff Survey (NHS England), Open Government Licence. About this data
Cancelled operations
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Quarter ending 30 June 2026· last-minute cancellations for NON-CLINICAL reasons (no bed, no staff, an emergency taking priority) — not cancellations chosen by the patient or on clinical grounds. It's a raw count, so larger trusts naturally cancel more in absolute terms — read this alongside the other measures above, not on its own.
Last-minute cancellations
57
elective ops cancelled on the day, non-clinical reasons
Not rebooked within 28 days
5
the NHS standard is a new date within 28 days
% not rebooked in time
8.8%
share of cancelled ops without a new date inside 28 days
Bed occupancy, ambulance handovers & delayed discharges (UEC Daily SitRep)
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Snapshot at 8am, 29 March 2026. This is unvalidated management information— NHS England's own label — and can be revised for up to 14 days after first publication. It is collected only during the winter Daily SitRep window, so this is the latest date the collection has published, not necessarily today. It measures operational pressure (how full the hospital is), NOT care quality — high occupancy is normal for NHS hospitals, especially in winter, and is not a safety or performance score. The ambulance-handover figures below cover winter 2025-26 as a period total(not a snapshot): the time from an ambulance arriving to the patient being handed over to A&E staff. The delayed-discharge figures cover the most recent 7 daysof the collection (not a snapshot, and not the whole winter): a patient who "no longer meets the criteria to reside" is medically ready to leave hospital, but how quickly they actually do mostly reflects social-care and community capacity to receive them — NOT the hospital's own clinical quality. A higher handover or delayed-discharge figure means more operational pressure — like the rest of this section, none of it is a measure of care quality, and it carries no colour grading, badge or ranking.
Adult general & acute bed occupancy
97.3%
466 occupied of 479 open
Adult critical care occupancy
93.3%
14 occupied of 15 open
Ambulance handovers over 30 minutes
40.0%
of 5,779 handovers, winter 2025-26
Ambulance handovers over 60 minutes
9.9%
of 5,779 handovers, winter 2025-26
Medically fit but not discharged
121
patients/day who no longer met the criteria to reside but stayed in hospital, week to 29 March 2026
Discharged when fit
29%
of 1,188 who no longer met the criteria to reside, week to 29 March 2026
Source: NHS England UEC Daily SitRep, Ambulance Handover and Acute Discharge SitRep collections. About this data
Never Events (patient safety)
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Financial year 2025/26 · Never Events are rare, serious, wholly-preventable incidents. This is a RAW count for 2025/26— it is NOT adjusted for how much surgery the trust does, and NHS England publishes it to prompt learning, NOT to compare trusts. A higher number is a prompt to look at the trust's own review, not proof it is less safe than a trust with fewer.
Never Events reported
4
Occurring in FY 2025/26 · not a comparative safety score
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · CQC National Maternity Survey, 2025 · scores are relative comparisons against other trusts, not a measure of absolute quality — based on 97 voluntary respondents (a question is only shown here where at least 30 people at this trust answered it). A lower score is a prompt to look closer, not proof of poor care.
Response rate
38.5%
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
97
Of 255 sampled
Confidence & trust in staff (antenatal care)
7.8/10
Worse than most trusts
Kindness & compassion (labour & birth)
9.1/10
About the same as most trusts
Involved in decisions about care (labour & birth)
8.7/10
About the same as most trusts
Got help from staff when needed (in hospital, after the birth)
6.8/10
About the same as most trusts
Confidence & trust in your midwife (postnatal care at home)
8.0/10
About the same as most trusts
Midwife listened to you (postnatal care at home)
8.4/10
About the same as most trusts
Source: Care Quality Commission — National Maternity Survey. About this data
Stroke care (SSNAP audit)
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme, latest quarter to 2026· the SSNAP level (A best .. E) is the audit's own published grade for the quality of this team's acute stroke-care PROCESSES, adjusted for case-mix, case ascertainment and audit compliance — it is not a guarantee of any individual patient's outcome. England only; SSNAP also covers Wales and Northern Ireland.
Countess of Chester Hospital
D52.5/100
Cheshire and Mersey
Domain grades (patient-centred)
Hyperacute assessmentC
Specialist pathwayD
ReperfusionD
MDT assessmentB
Therapy intensityC
Therapy frequencyD
Standards by dischargeC
Case ascertainment AAudit compliance A
Source: Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (Royal College of Physicians). About this data
Hip fracture care (NHFD audit)
National Hip Fracture Database, 2023audit year · "Met best-practice criteria" is the audit's own composite measure of this hospital's hip-fracture care PROCESSES — how quickly patients had surgery, were assessed and mobilised — not a guarantee of any individual patient's outcome. The 30-day mortality figure is case-mix adjusted; small numbers vary year to year. England only.
Met best-practice criteria
82.6%
The audit's own composite hip-fracture care measure
Prompt surgery (day of/after admission)
88.1%
Mobilised by day after surgery
86.5%
Orthogeriatric/medical assessment
96.4%
Falls assessment
99.5%
Bone-health assessment
98.2%
Acute length of stay
16.7 days
Hip fractures treated
385
This audit year — context, not a quality score
30-day mortality (case-mix adjusted)
7.2%
Lower is better · adjusted for patient factors, not a personal risk
Source: National Hip Fracture Database (Royal College of Physicians). About this data
Patient experience — inpatient care
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · CQC Adult Inpatient Survey, 2024 · scores are 0-10, and "better"/"worse" means the trust's score falls outside the range expected for a trust of its size (the CQC 95% expected range, centred on the national average) — a statistical-significance test, not a raw ranking. Based on 477 voluntary respondents (a question is only shown here where at least 30 people at this trust answered it). England only; response rates vary between trusts.
Response rate
41.9%
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
477
Of 1,250 sampled
Quality of information while waiting to be admitted
8.0/10
National average: 7.6/10
About the same as the national average
Cleanliness of your room or ward
8.7/10
National average: 8.9/10
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the doctors
8.8/10
National average: 9.0/10
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the nurses
8.8/10
National average: 8.9/10
About the same as the national average
Enough nurses on duty
7.1/10
National average: 7.6/10
About the same as the national average
Involved in decisions about your care and treatment
6.9/10
National average: 7.2/10
About the same as the national average
Given enough privacy when examined or treated
9.3/10
National average: 9.4/10
About the same as the national average
Given enough notice about when you would leave hospital
6.3/10
National average: 6.9/10
Worse than the national average
Knew what would happen next with your care, before leaving hospital
6.2/10
National average: 6.7/10
About the same as the national average
Source: Care Quality Commission — CQC Adult Inpatient Survey. About this data
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · CQC Urgent & Emergency Care Survey (A&E), 2024 · scores are 0-10, and "better"/"worse" means the trust's score falls outside the range expected for a trust of its size (the CQC 95% expected range, centred on the national average) — a statistical-significance test, not a raw ranking. Based on 276 voluntary respondents who attended a major (type 1) A&E department (a question is only shown here where at least 30 people at this trust answered it). England only; response rates vary between trusts.
Response rate
30.5%
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
276
Of 950 sampled
Overall experience of A&E
7.2/10
National average: 7.3/10
About the same as the national average
Told how long you'd wait to be examined
2.5/10
National average: 2.6/10
About the same as the national average
Kept updated on your waiting time
2.3/10
National average: 3.4/10
About the same as the national average
Doctors and nurses listened to you
8.3/10
National average: 8.3/10
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the doctors and nurses
8.4/10
National average: 8.1/10
About the same as the national average
Involved in decisions about your care
7.5/10
National average: 7.4/10
About the same as the national average
Test results explained before you left
7.4/10
National average: 7.5/10
About the same as the national average
Felt safe around other patients
7.3/10
National average: 7.8/10
About the same as the national average
Told how to care for your condition at home after leaving
6.9/10
National average: 6.8/10
About the same as the national average
Treated with respect and dignity
8.1/10
National average: 8.3/10
About the same as the national average
Source: Care Quality Commission — CQC Urgent & Emergency Care Survey (A&E). About this data
Patient experience — cancer care
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, 2025 · scores are the % of patients giving the most positive answer (and an overall 0–10 rating), and "better"/"worse" means the trust's score falls outside the range expected for a trust of its size (the survey's 95% expected range, centred on the national average) — a statistical-significance test, not a raw ranking. Based on 141 patients treated for cancer by this trust (a question is only shown here where at least 10 people at this trust answered it). England only; response rates vary between trusts.
Response rate
—
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
141
Who took part
Overall rating of care
9.1/10
National average: 8.9/10
About the same as the national average
Cancer diagnosis explained understandably
82%
National average: 78%
About the same as the national average
Easy to contact your main contact person
88%
National average: 84%
About the same as the national average
Involved as much as wanted in treatment decisions
80%
National average: 80%
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the team during hospital care
86%
National average: 78%
About the same as the national average
Always treated with respect and dignity in hospital
95%
National average: 88%
About the same as the national average
Possible side effects explained understandably
75%
National average: 74%
About the same as the national average
Given enough information about signs of cancer returning or spreading
70%
National average: 65%
About the same as the national average
The whole care team worked well together
94%
National average: 89%
About the same as the national average
Got the support needed from your GP practice since diagnosis
52%
National average: 45%
About the same as the national average
Source: NHS England (survey run by Picker on its behalf) — National Cancer Patient Experience Survey. About this data
Hip & knee replacement — patient outcomes (PROMs)
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Financial year 2024-25(finalised) · patients having a primary hip or knee replacement voluntarily score their health before and after surgery. The average gain shown is adjusted for differences between patients (case-mix) — it is not a raw before/after difference and not a ranking, so read it alongside the patient numbers.
Hip replacement
Patients
22
Modelled records — completed the questionnaire before & after
% who improved
100.0%
Oxford Score higher after surgery than before
Knee replacement
Patients
17
Modelled records — completed the questionnaire before & after
% who improved
100.0%
Oxford Score higher after surgery than before
Source: NHS England PROMs (hip & knee replacement). About this data
Diagnostic test waits
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Latest month: June 2026. The operational standard is that under 1% should wait more than 6 weeks.
Waiting 6+ weeks for a test
16.0%
of 7,885 patients on the diagnostic waiting list
Test
Waiting list
6+ weeks
6+ weeks (count)
13+ weeks
Audiology
467
38.5%
180
11
DEXA Scan
624
32.1%
200
0
Cardiology
733
27.3%
200
4
Gastroscopy
521
25.1%
131
7
Colonoscopy
263
25.1%
66
2
Flexi Sigmoidoscopy
78
16.7%
13
0
Ultrasound
3,229
10.6%
343
0
MRI
1,099
7.6%
84
0
Respiratory physiology
148
6.8%
10
3
CT scan
580
5.0%
29
0
Cystoscopy
99
1.0%
1
0
Waiting 6+ weeks for a diagnostic test
All tests combined
Source: NHS England Diagnostic Waiting Times & Activity (DM01). About this data
Safety: infections
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Cases in the 12 months to July 2026. Hospital-onset cases are those most likely acquired in hospital.
Infection
Cases (12 mo)
Hospital-onset
MRSA bacteraemia
5
2
C. difficile
111
40
E. coli bacteraemia
238
35
MSSA bacteraemia
82
20
Klebsiella bacteraemia
91
18
Pseudomonas bacteraemia
29
11
Hospital-onset cases per month
All infections combined
Source: UK Health Security Agency mandatory surveillance. About this data
Mortality (SHMI)
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · 12 months to Mar 2026.
As expected
0.87
SHMI value (1.00 = as many deaths as expected) · 1,345 deaths vs 1,550 expected
SHMI over time
Rolling 12-month value
The SHMI compares the number of deaths after hospital care with the number expected given patients' characteristics. It is not a death rate and a higher value is a prompt to investigate, not proof of poor care. Source: NHS England. About this data
Waiting times by specialty
Trust-wide (Countess Of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Data: June 2026 · Source: NHS England Referral to Treatment statistics
Every figure on this page comes from an official publication: NHS England Referral to Treatment statistics, NHS England A&E statistics, and the Care Quality Commission directory. Data periods are shown against each figure — NHS England publishes with a lag of around six weeks. Read the full methodology.