The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated a south-west London hospital’s maternity service good, following an inspection undertaken in October.
CQC’s inspection at Kingston Hospital was carried out as part of its 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 CQC’s website.
In addition to being rated good following overall following the inspection, Kingston Hospital’s maternity service was rated good for being well-led and requires improvement for being safe.
Ratings for Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, are unchanged by this inspection. It remains outstanding overall.
Similarly, Kingston Hospital remains rated good overall.
Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC head of hospital inspection, said:
“Overall, women and babies were receiving good care in Kingston Hospital’s maternity service.
“Behind this was leaders’ work to monitor the service’s effectiveness, and the way they used this information to meet women and babies’ needs. This helped staff feel valued and supported to focus on providing care.
“However, there were areas of the service Kington Hospital NHS Foundation Trust must improve.
“These include addressing its staffing shortage, high turnover and sickness rates. Leaders had strategies to manage this, including supporting staff through appraisals and specialist training, but staffing pressures had led to the service closing to new admissions on several occasions.
“While staffing challenges are affecting the NHS and wider care sector across the country, every trust and healthcare provider must do all it can to ensure its care isn’t undermined by staffing constraints.
“The trust must also ensure the service’s premises is secure to prevent unauthorised people accessing it.
“We have reported our findings to the trust so it can build on what it’s getting right and address what needs improvement.
“We continue to monitor the service, hospital and trust – including through future inspections – to support the safe and effective care and treatment people have a right to expect.”
The inspection found:
- Leaders ran the service well and managers monitored its effectiveness
- Staff felt respected, supported and valued, and they were focused on the needs people receiving care
- Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities, and they were committed to improving services continually
- The service engaged well with women and the community to plan and manage services
- Safety incidents were managed well and used to drive learning.
However:
- There were not always enough staff to keep people safe
- Appropriate medical review for women attending maternity triage was not always timely
- Not all staff were up to date with training in key skills
- The security of the unit did not ensure women and babies’ safety at the time of the inspection.