"Outstanding" CQC report
Further to a CQC Inspection in September 2023 the maternity service has retained "outstanding" status. The CQC rated the service as outstanding because:
- The service had a strong vision for what it wanted to achieve and a strategy to turn it into action.
- The service engaged well with women and birthing people and the community to plan and manage services.
- The service had enough midwifery and medical staff, planned and actual numbers were equal to each other.
- Staff had training in key skills and worked well together for the benefit of women and birthing people.
- Staff assessed risks to women and birthing people, acted on them and kept good care records.
- The service controlled infection risk well. The environment was suitable and the service had enough equipment to keep women and birthing people safe.
- Leaders at all levels demonstrate the high levels of experience, capacity and capability needed to deliver excellent and sustainable care. Leaders supported staff to develop their skills and safe innovation was celebrated.
Previously our maternity service attained the CQC top rating “outstanding” in June 2018 for features including:
- The right number of staff with the qualifications, training and experience to meet patients’ needs.
- Midwives co-ordinated care from a range of different staff, teams and services to meet individual needs including mental health and emotional well being.
- Staff responded compassionately when people needed help supporting them to make informed choices about the care they received.
- Women had access to a range of pain relief methods including birthing pools. Epidurals were available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Maternity services are provided in a way that meet the needs of local people. Patients’ needs and preferences are central to the delivery of tailored service.
- The introduction of a 24/7 midwife led support line, Call a Midwife, to ensure women received the best care and direction.
The Care Quality Commission, CQC, is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage care services to improve.
To get to the heart of patient’s experience of care and treatment, the CQC run comprehensive inspections of NHS Trusts and gather data from the hospital directly. The CQC rate the quality of services against five key measures as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.