THE Care Quality Commission has raised concerns about the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

The independent regulator has identified three indicators it considers to be risks and three elevated risks out of a total of 79 indicators.

The risks are potential under-reporting of patient safety incidents, the proportion of patients having operations cancelled and uptake of flu vaccination among staff.

The elevated risks are 18-week waiting times from referral to treatment, the number of patients not treated within 28 days following a last minute cancellation for non-clinical reasons and whistleblowing alerts.

Earlier this month the CQC said it still had concerns about the way patient records were being kept on the older people’s wards at the RUH following inspections in February and June.

A spokesman for the RUH said improvements had been made since the CQC visited and he now believed the hospital would be in one of the lowest risk bands.

He said patients needing elective surgery were being treated more quickly, while flu vaccination uptake among staff was 25 per cent of its workforce, or more than 1,000 people.

The spokesman added: “We look forward to the CQC carrying out an in-depth inspection of the RUH in December as one of the 18 trusts involved in the pilot of the new style inspections.

“We strongly believe that we are providing a safe, high quality level of care and welcome the opportunity to show inspectors this.”