The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has again rated maternity services at the University College Hospital & Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing, run by University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, as good following an inspection in June.
The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s national maternity inspection programme. The programme aims to provide an up-to-date view of the quality of hospital maternity care across the country and a better understanding of what is working well to support learning and improvement at a local and national level.
In addition to maternity services being again rated good overall, they were also rated good for safe and well-led. The other areas weren’t looked at in this inspection, so remain good for effective, caring and responsive.
The overall rating for the University College Hospital & Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing remains requires improvement and the overall rating for University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust remains good.
Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC’s deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare said:
“We found a culture at the trust where staff were working well together for the benefit of the women and people using the service, understood how to protect them from abuse, and managed safety well.
“Leaders supported staff to develop their skills, with staff saying they felt respected, supported and valued. Staff and leaders engaged well with people using their services, with people able to access the service in a timely way when they needed it.
“It was good to see them screening all pregnant people for gestational diabetes, not just those at high risk, as this enabled early diagnosis and support for people before symptoms developed.
“We will continue to monitor the service, including through future inspections, to ensure women and people using the service continue to receive a good standard of care.”
Inspectors also found:
- Doctors and midwives were supported to undertake a master’s degree in sonography, improving career development and ensuring people didn’t have to wait for sonographers
- There was a positive culture of working towards identifying and reducing health inequalities
- The service had their own laboratories which meant complex screening test results were received quickly
- The needs of the women and people using the service were considered by adapting clinics to support them, such as a clinic supporting people experiencing anxiety around giving birth.
However:
- The service didn’t always control infection risk well. Not all staff followed infection control principles because they weren’t adhering to the trust’s uniform policy
- The service must continue to audit risk assessments to improve overall compliance and reduce risks to women and people using the service
- The service should ensure that daily checks are completed, recorded and are effective for all emergency trollies.