Health trust is the most improved in area, table shows

THE Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has delivered the biggest improvement of any trust in Cheshire and Merseyside in the latest NHS ‘Oversight Framework’ league table.

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It has risen 24 places to position 98 of 134 trusts, giving the trust - which runs the Countess of Chester, Ellesmere Port and Tarporley War Memorial hospitals - nine months of sustained progress.

This trend has seen the trust move out of the bottom ranked group of acute trusts nationally, known as Segment 4, with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) showing greater confidence in its’ stability, leadership and delivery.

Hospital leaders say the improvement reflects an improvement in the Emergency Department (which includes A&E), a significant reduction in long waits for planned care and a clear plan for modernising services across Chester and Ellesmere Port.

The Countess of Chester Hospital is among the most improved in England over the past 12 months because of consistent delivery across a range of cancer standards and significant reductions in the length of time patients are waiting for planned treatment and diagnostics.

Alongside these improvements, the trust is also updating its buildings to support better care.

The new £110 million Women and Children’s Building opened in September 2025 and work has begun to remove the old building to make space for future clinical services.