The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated maternity services at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne as requires improvement, following an inspection in January.
The inspection at the hospital, which is run by The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was carried out as part of CQC’s national maternity services inspection programme. This will 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.
This is the first time maternity services at Royal Victoria Infirmary have been rated as a standalone core service. Previously, maternity and gynaecology services were inspected and rated together.
As well as maternity services at Royal Victoria Infirmary overall being rated requires improvement, so has how safe the service is. Well-led has been rated as good. CQC did not inspect how effective, caring and responsive the service was, at this inspection so they remain as unrated.
The overall rating for Royal Victoria Infirmary remains as outstanding.
Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC’s deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said:
“When we visited maternity services at Royal Victoria Infirmary, we found leaders understood and managed the priorities and issues the service faced, however more work needs to be done to address safety concerns across the service.
“For example, inspectors found issues with equipment in the Newcastle Birthing Centre. There was out of date equipment on wards and resuscitation trolleys, also daily checks on emergency equipment weren’t adequate which could put people’s health at risk if their condition deteriorates.
“However, staff worked well together for the benefit of women and people using the service and understood how to protect them from abuse.
“After this inspection, we informed the trust’s leadership team where they must make improvements, and we will continue to monitor the service closely, including through future inspections, to determine whether the issues we identified are addressed so people receive the care they have a right to expect.”
Inspectors found:
- Not all staff had training in key skills.
- Staff did not always manage medicines well, inspectors found unsecured and out of date medicines in some areas.
- Some staff did not feel respected, supported, and valued. Some staff expressed dissatisfaction that they had not been involved in changes to working practices and the way in which senior leaders had communicated these to them.
However:
- Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills.
- The service engaged well with woman and birthing people and the community to plan and manage services.