A private hospital dubbed the “Chiltern Hilton” which charges thousands of pounds per operation has been told it must improve by healthcare inspectors.

BMI The Chiltern Hospital in Great Missenden was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in January and a report published this week reveals they were rated as requiring improvement.

Another BMI facility, The Shelburne Hospital, which is based on the same site as Wycombe Hospital, has also been told it requires improvement after a similar inspection also took place in January.

A letter from the deputy chief inspector of hospitals, Nigel Acheson, said the Great Missenden hospital highlighted a number of issues – including that not all departments had “sufficient numbers of nurses with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe from avoidable harm”.

They also found that although children can be seen and treated at the hospital – with 578 seen in the last 12 months - not all staff were made to complete training in paediatric basic life support.

While their surgery provision and medical care was deemed to be good, concerns were raised about their services for children and young people, diagnostic imaging and the outpatients department.

The report found that not all areas where patients received care were “fit for purpose” and although most equipment was suitable, the paperwork to show it had been tested and serviced were not always available or up-to-date.

Meanwhile at The Shelburne, which provides care for adults only, inspectors noted similar concerns about the paperwork for the hospital’s equipment and sufficient number of nurses with correct qualifications and said not all staff had completed the right level of safeguarding training.

While staff recognised incidents, they were not always reported “appropriately”.

On the other hand, both hospitals were praised in a number of areas – including that they controlled infection risks well, staff provided emotional support to patients and involved them in decisions about their care and treatment.

In the report on The Chilterns, inspectors said: “We observed how staff demonstrated a kind and caring attitude to patients and took time to speak with patients and their relatives in a respectful, patient and considerate way.

“The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and learnt lessons from the results, sharing these both internally and with other BMI hospitals.”

A spokesman for BMI Healthcare said: “The CQC inspectors found that both Chiltern Hospital and Shelburne Hospital were effective and responsive, with staff providing a good level of care. We have already put into a place an action plan to address each and every improvement highlighted by the inspection team.

“The inspectors praised the team at Chiltern for putting patients at the centre of all they did, and noted that the team at Shelburne cared for patients with compassion and planned services around their needs.”