About us

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust consists of a 600 bedded large district General Hospital, which provides its services on the Countess of Chester Health Park, and a 64 bedded Intermediate Care Service at Ellesmere Port Hospital. The Trust has almost 4,000 staff and provides a range of medical services to more than 445,000 patients per year from an areas covering Western Cheshire, Ellesmere Port, Neston and North Wales.

The Countess of Chester Hospital has an excellent reputation for delivering high quality patient care and is nationally accredited at the highest levels in many areas, in particular those relating to clinical outcomes and patient safety.

Our aim is to be the preferred hospital of choice for our traditional community, and a preferred hospital of choice for patients from a wider area, and to continue to provide a comprehensive, high quality, and accessible range of emergency and elective services to all our patients. We want our patients to be assured that they will receive their care as rapidly as possible in a first-class environment, be treated with courtesy and dignity, and be confident that the outcome of their clinical care will be of the highest standards and safety.

View our CQC Statement of Purpose document here (192kb)

Our strategic vision

As you will know, the NHS is facing some tough times and the Countess is no different. To meet these challenges, the Trust's three year strategic vision is "to transform our services to deliver the highest quality, safest patient care through committed and capable people."

• The Trust has established five key strategic objectives to achieve our vision:

Providing the best possible patient experience

We believe that providing the best clinical outcomes and highest quality care in a safe, friendly environment where a patient's dignity is fully respected will provide our patients the best possible experience even in the often difficult circumstances many face. That's why we intend to continuously make improvements in the patient experience and reduce the incidence of harm. 

Efficiency in delivering services

We aim to deliver streamlined, accessible services to patients, where it is most convenient to them, with the lowest waiting times, by maximising our operational efficiency and productivity and redesigning service provision.

Listening to our customers

Patients are not our only customers - their relatives, friends, visitors, the General Practitioners who refer them and the bodies that commission our services are important too. By listening to our customers and using their feedback and by working in partnership with our commissioners we will continuously improve the services we provide.

Pushing Boundaries

Always moving forward and changing things for the better, expanding the scope and range of services - life-changing innovation, from the application of the very best clinical practice, through process transformation and use of the latest technology.

People at their best

Meeting our ambitions for customers rests on our staff - engaging, empowering and recognising our people will make sure they can give their best and continuously drive improvement in the delivery of services.

The Trust's Key Achievements

• The Trust won the prestigious 40Top Hospitals Award for eleven years in succession, one of only 5 Trusts in the country to achieve this status.
• 18,000 (4.2%) more patients were treated at the Countess compared to the previous year.
• We reduced the incidence of MRSA by 50% and Clostridium Difficile by 62%, and achieved full and unconditional compliance with the Healthcare Commissions Hygiene Code.
• All key English and Welsh waiting times and cancer targets were met.
• The Trust won Project of the Year in the Lean Healthcare Academy Awards 2010 and were shortlisted as a finalist for the Health Service Journal Awards.
• The Trust invested £6.1m in improving the physical infrastructure and environment of the hospital and increasing capacity. This included a new £1.2m building to provide an Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) service.
• Public membership has increased to over 11,400 Trust members.