A healthcare watchdog has found slight improvements at a trust's medical care services - but inspectors still have concerns and leaders have been told to address them "with urgency".

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published two reports following inspections at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and Kent and Canterbury Hospital, following inspections in May.

Both hospitals are run by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

The CQC carried out an inspection at William Harvey Hospital in October to look at how safe the service was, after receiving concerns about poor infection control practices. It was subsequently rated inadequate for being safe.

Following the latest inspection in May, the rating for safe has improved from inadequate to requires improvement. But the overall rating for the medical care services remains requires improvement.

Inspectors also looked at the medical care services at Kent and Canterbury Hospital and the previous rating of requires improvement overall remains.

Amanda Williams, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: "I am pleased to report that since our last inspection, leaders have worked hard to improve infection control practices in the medical care services departments at both hospitals, although some improvements still need to be fully embedded, particularly at William Harvey Hospital.

'Trust leaders told us they would address our concerns as a matter of urgency, and we will continue to monitor their progress...'

"We also found there was a positive culture in the service across both hospitals, and staff felt empowered to report incidents. These were fully investigated by managers and, importantly, learnings were shared with the wider team."

However, she said they were concerned to find patient records were not always up to date and some important risk assessment information was missing, including details about people’s fluid balance.

"This was despite being told by the coroner in July last year that fluid balance monitoring needed to improve to prevent patient future deaths," she added.

"This was after fluid overload contributed to the death of a patient in the hospital.

"Across both hospitals, our inspectors found records relating to people’s fluid balances were consistently incomplete or not completed at all. It is important to check how much fluid patients take on and how much goes out, otherwise people could be at risk of dehydration or becoming overloaded with fluid.

"Trust leaders told us they would address our concerns as a matter of urgency, and we will continue to monitor their progress."

An inspection at William Harvey found staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so.

The service used systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines - and records were stored securely and easily available to all staff providing care.

However, not all staff washed their hands before entering wards and social distancing guidance was not always followed.

Workers did not always keep detailed records of patients’ care and treatment - which were not always clear and up to date.

At Kent and Canterbury Hospital, inspectors found staff felt respected, supported and valued.

It also had effective systems to ensure that standards of hygiene were maintained and offered protection and safety for staff and patients.

But staff did not always follow the trust’s guidance for dealing with deteriorating patients and not all works had the knowledge around how to escalate concerns about patients with mental health conditions out of hours.

East Kent Hospitals chief executive Susan Acott said: "Our staff have worked incredibly hard to improve care for patients and I am pleased that the CQC has recognised this.

"We know there is more to do to consistently provide the highest standards of care and we are urgently addressing the areas highlighted for improvement.

"There are daily safety huddles and our teams of matrons are regularly checking that risk assessments and patients’ records are up to date and staff always follow infection prevention and control measures."

Since the inspection staff on all wards have had refresher training on the completion of fluid balance charts, in addition to training provided last summer following the coroner’s recommendations.

Read more: All the latest news from Kent