A healthcare watchdog found a Hertfordshire trust largely “requires improvement” after a recent inspection.

The Care Quality Commission gave West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust the overall rating following an assessment in October and November last year.

The trust is responsible for Watford General Hospital, Hemel Hempstead Hospital and St Albans City Hospital.

It was given a “requires improvement” rating for safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and being well-led - but rated as “good” for care.

The partial inspection in autumn looked at urgent and emergency care, medical care, surgery and maternity at Watford General; the Minor Injuries Unit at St Albans and the Urgent Treatment Centre at Hemel Hempstead.

Safety for urgent and emergency care, medical care, maternity and family planning, and outpatients and diagnostic imaging at Watford General requires improvement. As does effectiveness for end of life care, and responsiveness for surgery, critical care and urgent and emergency care.

Whereas safety for the Minor Injuries Unit and outpatients and diagnostic imaging at St Albans were rated as inadequate and requires improvement respectively.

Effectiveness and responsiveness at St Albans’ Minor Injuries Unit also requires improvement, and it being well-led was found inadequate.

At Hemel Hempstead, effectiveness and safety for the Urgent Care Centre and outpatients and diagnostic imaging all requires improvement, while the Urgent Care Centre being well-led was found inadequate.

Since the trust’s last inspection in 2015, however, comparison of “inadequate” and “good” ratings showed 25 additional good ratings, and a decrease from 15 to three inadequate ratings, which the trust said, “shows how dramatically the balance has tipped towards improvement”.

Trust chairman, professor Steve Barnett, said he was “immensely proud” of his staff, adding: “We have achieved these positive results in spite of the challenges raised by operating in buildings across three sites that are past their best.”

Acting chief executive, Helen Brown, added: “I fully recognise that our improvement journey has a long path. Naturally, we’re hugely disappointed with the ratings for our Minor Injuries Unit and the Urgent Treatment Centre and our teams are working hard to make improvements.”