26.7% treated within 62 days · standard 85% · About this data
Diagnostics
Below NHS standard
22.4% 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
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust recorded 5,037 A&E attendances in July 2026, with 59.3% of patients treated within four hours. In June 2026, the trust had 22,640 patients on its waiting list, and 60.5% were seen within 18 weeks of referral. Additionally, 66% of staff in the 2025 NHS Staff Survey said they would be happy for a friend or relative to be treated there.
Automatically generated from the official figures on this page and checked to restate only those figures. Last generated 16 August 2026. This is a plain-English summary, not medical advice. About these summaries
▲ 7 vs yr agoBetter than 67% 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 Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Performance over time
Trust-wide (Dorset County 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 (Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Latest month: July 2026· all A&E department types combined — the official headline basis.
A&E attendances
5,037
All department types · latest month
Seen within 4 hours
59.3%
All department types · NHS standard: 95%
Waited over 12 hours
45
From decision-to-admit ('trolley waits')
Emergency admissions
2,750
All department types · latest month
Major A&E only (Type 1)
Attendances
5,037
Seen within 4 hours
59.3%
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 Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust— Type 1 in NHS England's classification.
Department type
Attendances
Within 4 hours
All types (official headline)
5,037
59.3%
Type 1 — major A&E
5,037
59.3%
Source: NHS England A&E Attendances & Emergency Admissions. About this data
Cancer waiting times
Trust-wide (Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · Latest month: June 2026.
Treatment within 62 days
26.7%
4 of 15 treated in time
Target 85% · 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 (Dorset County 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
66.0%
Agreed · 2025 NHS Staff Survey▼ 2.2 pts vs 2024Median English trust: 63.9%
Staff engagement
6.92
out of 10 · 2025
Would recommend as a place to work
62.8%
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 (Dorset County 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
174
elective ops cancelled on the day, non-clinical reasons
Not rebooked within 28 days
44
the NHS standard is a new date within 28 days
% not rebooked in time
25.3%
share of cancelled ops without a new date inside 28 days
Bed occupancy, ambulance handovers & delayed discharges (UEC Daily SitRep)
Trust-wide (Dorset County 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
98.3%
291 occupied of 296 open
Adult critical care occupancy
100.0%
10 occupied of 10 open
Ambulance handovers over 30 minutes
18.7%
of 6,541 handovers, winter 2025-26
Ambulance handovers over 60 minutes
1.8%
of 6,541 handovers, winter 2025-26
Medically fit but not discharged
66
patients/day who no longer met the criteria to reside but stayed in hospital, week to 29 March 2026
Discharged when fit
35%
of 715 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 (Dorset County 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
1
Occurring in FY 2025/26 · not a comparative safety score
Trust-wide (Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · CQC National Maternity Survey, 2025 · scores are relative comparisons against other trusts, not a measure of absolute quality — based on 111 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
43.7%
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
111
Of 255 sampled
Confidence & trust in staff (antenatal care)
9.0/10
Better than most trusts
Kindness & compassion (labour & birth)
9.5/10
Better than most trusts
Involved in decisions about care (labour & birth)
9.1/10
Better than most trusts
Got help from staff when needed (in hospital, after the birth)
7.4/10
About the same as most trusts
Confidence & trust in your midwife (postnatal care at home)
8.4/10
About the same as most trusts
Midwife listened to you (postnatal care at home)
8.7/10
About the same as most trusts
Source: Care Quality Commission — National Maternity Survey. About this data
Stroke care (SSNAP audit)
Trust-wide (Dorset County 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.
Dorset County Hospital
C60.0/100
Wessex
Domain grades (patient-centred)
Hyperacute assessmentC
Specialist pathwayC
ReperfusionE
MDT assessmentC
Therapy intensityC
Therapy frequencyC
Standards by dischargeA
Case ascertainment AAudit compliance A
Source: Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (Royal College of Physicians). About this data
Patient experience — inpatient care
Trust-wide (Dorset County 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 473 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
44.6%
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
473
Of 1,105 sampled
Quality of information while waiting to be admitted
6.9/10
National average: 7.6/10
About the same as the national average
Cleanliness of your room or ward
8.9/10
National average: 8.9/10
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the doctors
9.1/10
National average: 9.0/10
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the nurses
9.0/10
National average: 8.9/10
About the same as the national average
Enough nurses on duty
7.5/10
National average: 7.6/10
About the same as the national average
Involved in decisions about your care and treatment
7.1/10
National average: 7.2/10
About the same as the national average
Given enough privacy when examined or treated
9.5/10
National average: 9.4/10
About the same as the national average
Given enough notice about when you would leave hospital
6.9/10
National average: 6.9/10
About the same as the national average
Knew what would happen next with your care, before leaving hospital
6.6/10
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 (Dorset County 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 467 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
39.0%
Share of those sampled who responded
Respondents
467
Of 1,250 sampled
Overall experience of A&E
8.1/10
National average: 7.3/10
Better than the national average
Told how long you'd wait to be examined
3.2/10
National average: 2.6/10
About the same as the national average
Kept updated on your waiting time
3.8/10
National average: 3.4/10
About the same as the national average
Doctors and nurses listened to you
8.5/10
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
7.7/10
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
8.9/10
National average: 7.8/10
Better than the national average
Told how to care for your condition at home after leaving
6.8/10
National average: 6.8/10
About the same as the national average
Treated with respect and dignity
9.0/10
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 (Dorset County 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 369 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
369
Who took part
Overall rating of care
9.0/10
National average: 8.9/10
About the same as the national average
Cancer diagnosis explained understandably
79%
National average: 78%
About the same as the national average
Easy to contact your main contact person
89%
National average: 84%
About the same as the national average
Involved as much as wanted in treatment decisions
83%
National average: 80%
About the same as the national average
Confidence and trust in the team during hospital care
76%
National average: 78%
About the same as the national average
Always treated with respect and dignity in hospital
87%
National average: 88%
About the same as the national average
Possible side effects explained understandably
78%
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
90%
National average: 89%
About the same as the national average
Got the support needed from your GP practice since diagnosis
55%
National average: 45%
Better than 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 (Dorset County 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
Average health gain (adjusted)
23.3
Oxford Score, case-mix-adjusted, 0-48 scale Raw gain (unadjusted): 23.1
Patients
30
Modelled records — completed the questionnaire before & after
% who improved
100.0%
Oxford Score higher after surgery than before
Knee replacement
Average health gain (adjusted)
16.6
Oxford Score, case-mix-adjusted, 0-48 scale Raw gain (unadjusted): 17.1
Patients
35
Modelled records — completed the questionnaire before & after
% who improved
91.4%
Oxford Score higher after surgery than before
EQ-5D Index gain (adjusted)
0.31
General health, secondary measure, 0-1 scale
Source: NHS England PROMs (hip & knee replacement). About this data
Diagnostic test waits
Trust-wide (Dorset County 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
22.4%
of 5,913 patients on the diagnostic waiting list
Test
Waiting list
6+ weeks
6+ weeks (count)
13+ weeks
Cardiology
1,326
45.8%
607
120
Gastroscopy
644
35.2%
227
49
Cystoscopy
160
35.0%
56
13
Colonoscopy
650
34.5%
224
64
DEXA Scan
474
15.8%
75
0
Flexi Sigmoidoscopy
111
15.3%
17
2
Respiratory physiology
241
13.7%
33
2
Neurophysiology
197
12.7%
25
0
CT scan
570
4.4%
25
0
MRI
445
2.7%
12
0
Ultrasound
1,065
1.1%
12
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 (Dorset County 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
6
2
C. difficile
82
31
E. coli bacteraemia
186
25
MSSA bacteraemia
68
13
Klebsiella bacteraemia
52
8
Pseudomonas bacteraemia
16
8
Hospital-onset cases per month
All infections combined
Source: UK Health Security Agency mandatory surveillance. About this data
Mortality (SHMI)
Trust-wide (Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) · 12 months to Mar 2026.
As expected
0.96
SHMI value (1.00 = as many deaths as expected) · 1,185 deaths vs 1,235 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 (Dorset County 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.