The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has rated maternity services at three Portsmouth hospitals as good, following inspections in October.
Maternity services were inspected at Queen Alexandra Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital and Gosport War Memorial Hospital, all in Hampshire run by Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust.
These inspections were carried out as part of CQC’s national maternity services 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 locally and nationally.
The CQC carried out focused inspections looking at how safe and well-led the services were at each hospital.
Following this inspection, the rating for maternity services at Queen Alexandra Hospital has been raised from requires improvement to good overall, and for being safe. Well-led has been rated as good again.
St Mary’s Hospital’s maternity services have been rated as good overall, and for being safe and well-led. Maternity services at Gosport War Memorial Hospital were also rated as good overall, and for being safe and well-led. This is the first time maternity services at these two hospitals have been rated as standalone services without gynaecology.
These inspections don’t affect the trust’s overall rating which remains rated as good overall.
Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC's deputy director of secondary and specialist care, said:
“When we visited maternity services at Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust, we found leaders had effective systems and processes supporting staff to provide good care.
“Inspectors saw staff at all three hospitals had the skills and knowledge to keep women, people using the service, and their babies safe. The trust has also set up a new maternity passport which was developed with the local community and aims to improve the experience for women and people using the service who have a learning disability.
“At the Queen Alexandra Hospital we found many improvements had been made to staff training, the environment, and governance since our last inspection. Staff told inspectors they felt respected and praised the safety culture and collaborative working in the service. Leaders should be proud to have developed a culture that is committed to improving care.
“We’ll monitor the services, including through future inspections, to ensure people and their babies continue to receive a good standard of care.”
At Queen Alexandra Hospital, inspectors found:
- The service had several ongoing improvement projects including work to engage with less-heard groups such as people from local Filipino, Ghanaian, and Nigerian communities.
- Women and people using the service spoke positively to inspectors about the professionalism and quality of care they received. However, in written feedback to inspectors some people shared a desire for the service to improve their communication, and advice around areas such as tongue ties.
However:
- The service performed below some targets for postpartum haemorrhage incidents, but there was an action plan in place to address this.
At St Mary’s Hospital, inspectors found:
- Staff were well-trained, understood how to protect woman and birthing people from abuse, and managed safety well.
- Leaders ran the service well using reliable systems and supported staff to develop their skills.
- Staff spoke positively about working at the trust and the maternity centre had received no complaints in the past year.
However:
- The service wasn’t always learning lessons when incidents happened.
- Leaders could improve how people are transferred between the midwifery units and main hospital site.
At Gosport War Memorial Hospital, inspectors found:
- Staff spoke positively about working at the trust and leaders took a strong focus on staff wellbeing, ensuring they took time for breaks during their shifts.
- Staff were well-trained, understood how to protect woman and birthing people from abuse, and managed safety well.
- The service worked well with members of the community to develop and improve care.
However:
- Leaders could improve how people are transferred between the midwifery units and main hospital site.
- The service wasn’t always learning lessons when incidents happened.