A hospital chief executive has spoken of his "delight" after it was rated 'good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Mark Brandreth praised staff at the Orthopaedic Hospital nar Oswestry after the report was published this morning, rating care at the hospital 'outstanding'.

It marks a turnaround after the CQC rated the hospital as 'requires improvement in 2016.

Mr Brandreth said: "I am delighted for our fantastic staff, who really deserve to receive a CQC report like this.

“It is rich in detail about the many examples of outstanding practice that the inspectors observed during their time with us, and it made me so proud to read it. I truly believe they are the best staff in the NHS.

“The Trust has come a long way in a short period of time. We recognised the issues that saw us rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ three years ago, and have worked hard to address them.

"It is wonderful that this has now been recognised by the CQC."

But he added there is further work to do: "We will not sit back and rest on our laurels with this report. I know that all our people will want to keep going with our journey of improvement.

"We aspire to deliver world class patient care, and we will continue on that path.”

Inspectors visited the hospital in November 2018 and followed their visit up with a leadership check in December which also rated the trust 'good'.

In particular, the report praises staff who "exceed expectations".

The CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said "a number of improvements had been made".

He added: “We found a number of areas of outstanding practice at the trust and staff who were caring and committed to proving a good service, and to improving outcomes for patients. The trust encouraged staff to provide innovative care that minimised people’s distress.

“There were some areas for improvement and this included critical care, where we have told the trust it must ensure it has systems and processes in place to assess and monitor the service provided. The trust knows what it must do to ensure those improvements take place and we will return to check those improvements have been made.

“The staff and leadership at the trust are to be congratulated for all their hard work in making improvements that are making a real difference to patients and that have resulted in its new Good rating.”