THE NHS trust that provides some community health services in St Helens has been ordered to improve by the care watchdog.

Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as 'requires improvement' following its first full inspection by the Care Quality Commission in May and June last year.

The trust was rated good in the caring and responsiveness categories but as requiring improvement in the areas of safety, effectiveness and leadership.

Bridgewater is losing some of its St Helens community services in April, but still provides a number of services including walk-in, cancer support and safeguarding.

In the services that Bridgewater provides in St Helens in children's services the inspectors found the the trust was working through a backlog of 200 paediatric follow-up appointments following the transfer of the service into Bridgewater from another provider in 2015.

The trust said all patients have now been seen and an extra paediatrician has been recruited in St Helens.

Bridgewater said that it had addressed a number of issues raised by the report, including strengthening governance for medication management services and ensuring patients at urgent care and walk-in centres were triaged quickly in line with national guidelines.

Colin Scales, chief executive of Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We've matured as an organisation since our establishment in 2011 and have a new chief nurse and medical director who are focussing on improving and developing our diverse services across the region.

"Our commitment is to ensure that our standards are high across each and every service and that we move on a journey towards being a trust that is rated as good, and then outstanding."