The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a report following an inspection of the maternity service at Liverpool Women's Hospital, run by Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust, in January.
The inspection was carried out to follow up on the progress of improvements they were told to make in a warning notice CQC issued after their previous inspection in February last year. Following this inspection, CQC determined the trust had met the terms of the warning notice and it has therefore been removed.
As this was only a focused inspection, there has been no impact on the service’s ratings. The maternity service’s overall rating remains requires improvement as does how well-led the service is. Safe remains rated inadequate, effective and caring remain rated good and responsive remains rated outstanding.
The trust rating has not changed following the inspection, remaining requires improvement overall.
Inspectors found:
- Staff routinely carried out checks of emergency equipment
- Staff completed and updated risk assessments for each person using the service and took action to remove or minimise risks
- The service had enough staff to keep women, people using the service and their babies safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment
- Managers regularly reviewed and adjusted staffing levels and skill mix
- There were leadership structures in place to maintain oversight of the service.
However:
- We found out of date items on emergency trollies and the system used to carry out checks of emergency equipment was not always fit for purpose
- Staff did not always use tools effectively to identify people using the service whose physical health was at risk of deteriorating
- Performance data was not always accurate.