The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the maternity service at Darent Valley Hospital, part of Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust good, following an inspection undertaken in October.
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. You can read more about this work on the CQC website.
Darent Valley Hospital’s maternity service retains it good rating overall, as well as remaining good for being well-led and requires improvement for safe. The domains of effective, caring and responsive were not inspected during this visit and remain rated as good.
Ratings for Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, are unchanged by this inspection. It remains good overall.
Similarly, Darent Valley Hospital remains rated good overall.
Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC head of hospital inspection, said:
“Maternity services across England have faced significant challenges, but we found women and babies were generally receiving good care in a well-led maternity service at Darent Valley Hospital.
“However, we did find some safety concerns at this focused inspection, which the trust needs to address. There were concerns around the shortages of staff in certain areas of the department. However, the trust was doing everything in its power to mitigate any risks.
“The trust knows where they need to make improvements and we will return to check on their progress.”
The inspection found:
- They worked well together for the benefit of women and understood how to protect women from abuse
- Safety incidents were well managed and used to drive learning
- Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems, and they ensured staff were competent and supported to develop their skills
- Staff felt respected, supported and valued
- Staff completed and updated risk assessments for each woman and took action to remove or minimise risks
- Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities
- The culture within maternity services supported staff to develop and fostered a culture of learning and improvement
- The service engaged well with women and the community to plan and manage services, and staff were committed to continually improving services.