The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the maternity service at The Whittington Hospital, part of The Whittington Health NHS Trust, as requires improvement following an inspection in January.
The inspection was carried out as part of CQC’s national maternity services inspection programme. This 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 locally and nationally.
At this first inspection of maternity services, without gynaecology, CQC has rated the service as requires improvement. They have also rated how safe the service was as requires improvement, and how well-led as good. How effective, caring and responsive the service is, are unrated, because CQC didn’t look at these three areas at this inspection.
CQC’s rating of The Whittington Health NHS Trust remains good following this inspection.
Similarly, CQC’s rating of The Whittington Hospital remains good
Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC’s Deputy Director of Secondary and Specialist Healthcare and maternity inspection programme lead, said:
“During our inspection of Whittington Hospital maternity services, we found a leadership team that had the skills and abilities to run the service. They had a clear understanding of the challenges within the service, and we need to see them using those skills to take action address the issues we found at this inspection.
“Women in triage weren’t always being prioritised according to their clinical need using best practice guidance which could put them at risk.
“The hospital also has some work to do to ensure their facilities meet the needs of people using the service and their families. The labour ward rooms weren’t ensuite so women needed to use communal showers and toilets which didn’t always meet the needs or the privacy and dignity of women and birthing people.
“We’ll continue to monitor the service and the wider trust, including through future inspections, to support it to deliver safe and effective care.”
Inspectors found:
- The service did not have protected midwifery staff to respond to and manage the triage telephone line.
- Staff did not always complete and update risk assessments for each person and take action to remove or minimise risks.
- The service engaged with the community including women and staff from ethnic and minority backgrounds to ensure their views and experiences were gathered to improve on the service delivery.
However,
- The hospital has plans in place to refurbish the maternity services to the latest national standards and has secured funding for refurbishment on the birth centre, triage, labour ward and for launching a new bereavement suite.
- The service had 24-hour access to mental health liaison and specialist mental health support.