4 March 2011
Following a visit by inspectors to the maternity unit at Queen's Hospital, run by Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found the trust was not taking all proper steps to ensure the safety of women in the maternity unit.
Inspectors found that the maternity unit was often understaffed and that some staff were carrying out tasks for which they did not feel appropriately skilled, putting women and babies at risk.
They also found that the hospital was not following some of its own guidelines for planning and providing safe care, such as timescales for transferring women from the antenatal ward to the labour ward.
Some equipment necessary for the safe care of women and their babies, such as machines for monitoring contractions, was found to be unavailable, poorly maintained or not working.
CQC says the trust must fully address the first two of these issues by 30 March and address the equipment problems by 15 April. If the trust fails to comply, our next steps may include prosecution or restriction of services.
Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.
Ends
For media enquires, please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.
Notes to editors
About the CQC: Snippet for press releases
About the Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.
We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.
Read the report
Read the reports from our checks on standards at Queen's Hospital.