The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated maternity services at Homerton University Hospital 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 being rated good overall, the maternity services were rated good for well-led, and requires improvement for safe. Ratings for Homerton University Hospital are unchanged, remaining outstanding overall.
Carolyn Jenkinson CQC’s deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said:
“We found people generally received good care at Homerton University Hospital maternity services. Leaders had the skills and abilities to help staff meet people’s needs and staff felt respected, supported and valued.
“Staff and leaders engaged well with women, people using the service and the community to plan and manage services. There were exceptional links with the Jewish community, which make up just over 12 percent of the women and people using the maternity services.
“People were able to access the service when they needed it and didn’t have to wait too long for treatment, however the trust must ensure sufficient medical staffing is planned for triage to make sure women and people using the service are reviewed within safe time frames.
“We will continue to monitor the service, so the trust can build on where it’s providing good care and make improvements where they’re needed.”
Inspectors found the following:
- The service had robust perinatal mental health systems that included a perinatal mental health team with a specialist midwife, lead obstetric consultant, psychiatrist and a psychologist
- Leaders and teams used systems to manage performance effectively, identifying and escalating relevant risks and issues and actions to reduce their impact
- Leaders operated effective governance processes, throughout the service and with partner organisations. This supported the flow of information from frontline staff to senior managers
- The service promoted equality and diversity in daily work and staff told us they worked in a fair and inclusive environment
- Complaints and concerns were handled fairly, using the most informal approach that was applicable to deal with complaints.
However, the trust:
- Must ensure medical training compliance, such as obstetric emergency training meets trust targets to ensure the safety of people using the service and babies
- Must ensure sufficient medical staffing is planned for triage to make sure women and people using the service are reviewed within safe time frames.