UHNM Maternity Service rated good by inspectors

University Hospitals of North Midlands is pleased to announce that its maternity service has been rated good following an inspection last year. 

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published its full report following the unannounced inspection of maternity services in November.

The CQC inspects services provided by healthcare providers against five domains – safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. 

The maternity service was inspected against two of the five domains – safe and well-led – with both being rated as good. As a result, the overall rating for maternity services has been moved to Good from Requires Improvement. The overall Trust rating is not affected and remains Requires Improvement.

The Trust has also received notification that the maternity service has met the requirements of the Regulation Section 29A warning notice. 

UHNM put in place a detailed programme of improvement work to implement the recommendations of the Independent Maternity Review (known as the Ockenden review) and this includes actions required from its CQC inspection in 2023.

Today Ann-Marie Riley, UHNM Chief Nurse, said: “We are delighted that the CQC have recognised the significant improvements our maternity service has made. It is testament to hard work of our teams who work continually to improve experiences for those who use our services.
 
“We remain committed to delivering the highest standards possible for the people using our services and will continue to drive improvements across the services we provide.”

Chief Executive Simon Constable said: “I welcome this rating from the CQC on behalf of our maternity staff. It is important that people are reassured that the care they will receive is safe and it is good the improvements we have made have been recognised. However, we are not complacent and are committed to continue to improve for the benefit of all those who use our maternity services and their families.”