The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is bracing itself for an inspection from health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Chief executive Maggie Oldham said she could not imagine there are many other NHS chief executives who are as keen as she is to be inspected, as she seeks to move the trust from 'requires improvement' status.

The health watchdog found improvement in its last inspection in September 2019, pulling up the trust's January 2018 ranking from 'inadequate', which saw the hospital fall into special measures.

The trust was rated as 'requires improvement' in four categories — safe, effective, responsive and well-led. It was rated 'good' in the caring category.

Mental health services were inadequate, but others, including the NHS 111 and out of hours services, had improved and were rated good.

After the inspection the trust launched its 'Getting to Good' campaign, to see services upgraded and improved in time for the next CQC inspection.

Speaking at the trust's board meeting last week, Ms Oldham said the trust will be visited by the CQC next month when they will look at some of the core services, before an inspection in July.

She said: "We welcome the CQC; we are really keen to demonstrate there are many improvements within our trust since they were last able to visit us.

"I keep saying to staff while the visit is really important, we want to demonstrate and be proud of the improvements we have made – that this is all about doing the right thing for our community and, as we heard from our staff survey results, we know if we can get things right for our staff, we will start to see great outcomes for our patients.

"It is really important to us but no more important than our continued aspirations to get to outstanding for our community."