Royal Cornwall Hospital

At the time of the inspection there had been a significant period of instability at board level. Since the last inspection in January 2014 there had been three chief executives in post, two of those on an interim basis. Interviews for a permanent chief executive were taking place in the week following the inspection. Both the director of nursing and director of human resources and organisational development posts were interim appointments with the nursing director having been in place for five weeks at the time of the inspection. A new and experienced chair was appointed in 2015. The director of operations had joined the trust in September 2015. The director of finance was the longest standing of the team having been in post for five years.

We inspected the trust because the findings of our follow up inspection in June 2015 showed services had not improved since our first comprehensive inspection in January 2014.