INSPECTORS found huge improvements have been made at Colchester General Hospital but there is still work to do, according to the hospital’s top boss.

An inspection team from the Care Quality Commission visited the Turner Road hospital for three days last week and chief executive Nick Hulme said he was encouraged by initial feedback.

He said:”We will not know the final outcome for some weeks.

“We had probably 40 inspectors on site over the three days and they visited most areas of the hospital.

“For me the most encouraging aspect was that for every visit in the last three or four years at some stage the chief executive - whoever it was at the time - has been contacted to say inspectors have found a serious risk to patients.

“This did not happen on this occasion.”

He added: “I think it is a credit to the staff. They also recognised our work especially on things like treating sepsis and there were comments about how there had been a mood shift and had become a much more upbeat organisation.”

“All the focus groups were extremely well attended - in every single one they had to extend the size of the room.

“The feedback was in part mixed, but generally optimistic about where the organisation is.

“It is a credit to the staff who work here every single day but also to a smaller group who put the visit together.

“Inspectors said it was the best organised visit they had been on.

As part of an ongoing internal performance review, the hospital has been forced to rate itself inadequate because of consistent failures in the “effective” category which means despite better marks in the “caring” and “safe” areas, the trust must be rated “inadequate”.

Speaking at a meeting of hospital board directors Mr Hulme said he did not know what the final inspection result would reveal and did not want to speculate.

He said: “In terms of next steps we have had a high level letter from the head of the inspection team confirming there are no immediate issues but there are areas we need to get better in.

“There has been significant improvement but it is just the final bits where we need to close the loop which can take us to a different level.

“No feedback we got surprised me. I gave a presentation on the first morning and told them what I expected them to find and several times I was told ‘We have found this but you told us we would’.

“The report is being written now and we will see a draft for factual accuracy at the end of September and the final report will be published in the first weeks of October.

“The options are to keep us in special measures, look at a timeframe to take us out or take us out of special measures.

“I am not a betting man and even if I was, I would not like to put any money on the outcome of the inspection.”

An unannounced inspection of the hospital is set to take place in the next few days and Mr Hulme said he was relaxed about the possibility.

He said: “Last week I did not get the sense people were doing anything exceptional.

“I am feeling a lot more relaxed about an unannounced inspection than I would have done a year ago.”

Mr Hulme revealed chief inspector Sir Mike Richards was part of the inspection team on his last official visit to a hospital.

He said: “It was his last inspection.

“His first ever inspection was in Colchester and it was the first hospital he put into special measures.

“Hopefully his career will be book ended neatly and give us more positive feedback this time around.”