The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has again rated maternity services at George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust as good following an inspection in September.
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.
Inspectors only looked at the areas of safe and well-led in the maternity services at George Eliot NHS Hospital.
Following the inspection, the overall rating for maternity at George Eliot NHS Hospital, as well as the areas for safe and well-led, remain as good.
The overall rating for George Eliot NHS Hospital and George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust remains rated as requires improvement.
Carolyn Jenkinson, deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said:
“When we inspected maternity services at George Eliot NHS Hospital, we saw a service that provided good care to women, people using the service, and their babies. It was led by committed leaders who had created an open culture where people could raise concerns and be listened to, and who supported and encouraged staff to take on more senior roles.
“It was lovely to hear staff were proud to work for the trust and felt valued and respected by managers. We found they were focused on the needs of people receiving care, and we observed them showing people dignity and respect. We also received positive feedback from people who told us they were happy with the care and support they had received while using these services.
“Staff should be commended for demonstrating some outstanding practice. For example, the service was committed to identifying and reducing health inequalities. Positive interventions around smoking had been successful and the percentage of women who were current smokers at the time of delivery had reduced.
“In addition, the service was providing support for fathers and birthing partners, with help from ‘Dad Matters’ a community project. Also, the service had launched a free app for dads called DadPad, designed to reduce anxieties, create a strong bond and healthy attachment with their baby, build stronger family relationships and recognise when mental health support might be needed.”
“Staff should be proud of this hard work and commitment to enable people and their families to be able to receive the support they need at this special time.
“We will continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure people and their babies can continue to receive a good standard of care.”
Inspectors found the following during this inspection:
- Staff had training in key skills and worked well together for the benefit of women and people using the service, they understood how to protect people from abuse, and managed safety well. Training compliance was monitored to ensure staff maintained their skills and knowledge
- The service had continued to control infection risk well during the ongoing refurbishment work
- Staff assessed risks to women and people using the service, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well
- The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. When appropriate the service completed rapid reviews and action plans following incidents to minimise the risk of recurrence
- Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills
- Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent
- The service engaged well with women and people using the service, and the community to plan and manage services.
However:
- Despite the ongoing management of sickness levels and recruitment, staffing levels did not always match the planned numbers putting the safety of women, people using the service and babies at risk
- The service could not always demonstrate best practice guidance on consent for planned caesarean sections was being followed.