Bosses at the under-pressure James Paget University Hospital have been urged to think carefully about what went wrong as they put together an action plan to address problems.

The Gorleston hospital, which has had three damning Care Quality Commission inspections this year, is in the process of setting out what it plans to do to improve standards of care.

But at the joint board meeting of the Norfolk and Waveney primary care trusts yesterday, director of delivery for the east Harper Brown revealed he was working closely with the hospital to ensure this latest action plan finally got to the bottom of the problems.

He said the PCT had asked to see it so it could be sure it was 'robust' enough.

He said: 'So far, we have not accepted an action plan. We have been pushing them to tell us what they think the real problems are.

'They are addressing the symptoms, but we don't think they are addressing the cause yet. They want to get it right but what we are saying is it needs to go a bit deeper.'

The PCT received the latest version of the action plan on Tuesday and Mr Brown said he hoped it would have addressed those issues.

Last night, a JPUH spokesman said: 'We are currently working with the PCT on a process to finalise an agreed action plan. Until this process is complete, which is scheduled for mid-December, we will continue to focus on the quality of standards for patients and work collaboratively to meet the requirements of the Care Quality Commission and our partner organisations.'