An under-fire hospitals trust found to have had a series of infection control issues during the pandemic has made "very positive" improvements, inspectors say.

The East Kent Hospitals Trust was ordered to improve by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after a visit to the William Harvey in Ashford uncovered hygiene concerns at the site.

The inspection on August 11 followed reports that in-hospital transmission had likely been a factor in the trust recording the highest Covid-19 death toll in England throughout June and July.

Across those two months, 141 people died with coronavirus - 59 more than at any other trust.

Figures in July also showed that 58% of Covid patients in east Kent's hospitals "probably" caught the virus after they had been admitted, compared to the national average of 22% over the same period.

But following visits to the QEQM in Margate and William Harvey on March 2, the CQC lifted conditions imposed on the trust following the publication of last year's damning report.

The watchdog's head of hospital inspections, Cath Campbell, said today: "Our inspectors found a number of examples of outstanding practice when looking at infection prevention and control measures at the trust.

"This is particularly commendable during a period when the trust has had to deal with extreme pressure on resources as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In August, we took urgent enforcement action and imposed conditions relating to infection prevention and control practices after inspecting the emergency department and medical wards at William Harvey Hospital.

"I am pleased to report that the trust took immediate action to address the issues raised, so these conditions were lifted on 29 March."

Last summer, inspectors found issues in a number of different wards at the William Harvey, including those affected by the virus.

These included staff not always wearing PPE correctly in the emergency department, sometimes not changing it when entering and leaving patient bays.

And perhaps most alarmingly, however, inspectors found staff did not always use hand sanitiser while entering and leaving wards.

However, the watchdog found last month that hospital workers "were focused on the infection prevention and control needs of patients receiving care".

It also says the trust - which runs sites across Ashford, Margate, Canterbury, Dover and Folkestone - "had processes to identify and treat people with infection and reduce the risk of these people transmitting these infections to other people".

Ms Campbell added: "Leaders also adopted learnings from other trusts, and from NHS Improvement which led to the development of a detailed infection prevention and control improvement plan.

"The trust then set up an improvement group to focus on implementing the actions in the plan and put a committee in place to review internal audit data and led improvements based on this information.

“Although there were still one or two areas for improvement which we have advised the trust to look at now, overall, this is a very positive report.”

Inspectors did note, though, that the leadership team "did not always have capacity to support all staff" due to vacancies.

Despite the positive feedback from the watchdog, the trust's overall rating of "requires improvement" remains in place as this was an assessment specifically focused on infection prevention and control measures.

Reacting to the latest findings, East Kent Hospitals chief executive Susan Acott said: “We welcome the CQC’s report, which reflects the hard work of our staff.

“It found staff were focused on the infection prevention and control needs of patients, and identified several areas of outstanding practice, including how staff were protecting clinically extremely vulnerable patients from infection and changes to resuscitation areas in the emergency departments to help keep staff and patients safe.

“I would like to thank our staff for their care and commitment."

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