he Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found improvements in the care being provided in maternity services at Warwick Hospital, after an inspection in April.
The hospital, run by South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust was inspected 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 locally and nationally.
Following the inspection, the overall rating for maternity services at Warwick Hospital remains rated as good. The rating for being safe has improved from requires improvement to good, and well-led has gone up from good to outstanding. Effective, caring and responsive were not included in this inspection and remain rated as good.
Warwick Hospital remains rated as good, and South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust remains rated outstanding overall following this inspection.
Carolyn Jenkinson, deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said:
"When we visited maternity services at Warwick Hospital, staff were working incredibly hard to deliver a high standard of care to women and people using the service, and their babies. We found a well-respected and supportive leadership team who had the skills and abilities to run the service well. They had also created a positive culture, where staff showed everyone compassion and wanted to improve the delivery of care to meet people’s individual needs.
“People’s safety was prioritised, and the service managed safety incidents well to do this. Staff recognised and reported incidents and near misses. They were also investigated, and lessons learned were shared with the whole service so staff could learn from them to help prevent these from happening again. Additionally, when things did go wrong, staff apologised and gave people honest information and the right support.
“It was great to see some outstanding practice. For example, it provided a diabetes service to help support people with the condition. They had also introduced a health app so the maternity diabetes team could respond swiftly to any changes in people’s blood sugar levels. The introduction of this app had reduced the number of people attending hospital as staff could review the information and take any necessary action without seeing them face to face.
“I would like to congratulate the leadership team and staff on their hard work and commitment to providing high quality care. We will continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure women continue to receive a good standard of care.”
Inspectors found:
- Leaders ran services using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent
- Staff completed and updated risk assessments and took action to remove or minimise risks. Staff identified and quickly acted when people were at risk of deterioration
- Staff had training in key skills and worked well together for the benefit of people, understood how to protect them, and managed safety well
- Staff felt respected, supported, and valued. They were focused on the needs people receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities.
- The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to people, acted on them and kept good care records
- The service engaged with people from all cultures and communities.
There was also the following outstanding practice:
- The bereavement pathway was being improved to a seven-day service. Also, there had been increased staff training and awareness in bereavement to ensure support was available from all staff
- The maternity service supported and engaged with people with high-risk care needs including from ethnic minority backgrounds.