The chief executive of New Cross Hospital this afternoon described how complaints about care had “made his toes curl”.

David Loughton, head of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust told the board of directors at the hospital today they must accept the failings identified in a damning report by an NHS watchdog. The Care Quality Commission found the hospital was not meeting essential standards and care “was not always safe”.

The hospital has now been given 28 days to provide details of the action it will take to improve standards.

At a meeting of the hospital board today it emerged directors will not formally discuss the report until September although all directors have seen a copy.

Mr Loughton told the board members: “There were no surprises for us in the report at all. Without doubt the standard of care in this hospital for patients is deemed to be good 95 per cent of the time. But there is a percentage that isn’t and we have to go through the pain barrier and not hide behind it. We are going to get bad stories about where we have failed and where things are not good we need to change things.”

To read our stories in full, log in to the premium 24 website.