Our maternity services at Queen’s Hospital have put their troubled past behind them and thanks to extra midwives, doctors and an improving culture have been rated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – previously we were requires improvement. This means the CQC believe we are performing well and meeting their expectations. 

The improvements the CQC inspectors saw during their visit in August (which was a follow up inspection to one they conducted in October 2024) included more midwives and medical staff in our triage area - we’re one of a very small number of units with a dedicated consultant in obstetric triage; 24-hour ‘flow’ coordinators to reduce delays; and innovative use of theatres amid rising demand for caesarean sections (C-sections). 

We’ve invested heavily in additional midwives and medical staff (including over 38 whole time equivalent posts) and have recruited 14 consultants since 2021. We now have no senior doctor vacancies in obstetrics and gynaecology. In two years, our midwife vacancy rate has decreased from 16% to 4%.

There has also been a 44% reduction in the number of stillbirths over the last year thanks to offering more consistency in the midwife or team looking after women from our more deprived areas; improved support for vulnerable women; and better use of interpreters. 

In their report the inspectors wrote that “the service made sure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff and they worked together to provide safe care that met women’s individual needs.”

Our team has also found innovative ways to meet rising demand for C-sections which have increased by more than 40% since 2020. They run out of hours theatre sessions to ensure women, whose births are becoming increasingly complex, do not experience delays.

In the CQC report our leaders were praised for having “the skills, knowledge, experience, and credibility to lead effectively. They did so with integrity, openness and honesty”. 

Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive, said:

I am glad the hard work our team has done to improve maternity care at Queen's Hospital has been recognised by the CQC. 

We have made changes to the way we run services and have invested heavily in more midwives, and more medical cover to improve care. This extra investment has had results.

We still have plenty of work to do to make sure every mother and baby gets the care they deserve. However, this is an important moment for our Trust and I hope it will give local women more confidence about the care we provide at Queen's.

Kathryn Tompsett, Clinical Group Director, Women’s and Children’s services, said:

I’m hugely proud of the whole team for putting in the work to achieve this. 

Inspectors recognised a raft of improvements including increased staffing over and above recommended best practice levels to ensure women are reviewed quickly when they arrive; that we’ve embraced learning in how we respond to safety incidents; and our ongoing work to improve the culture in the department. 

We’ve set up a shadow leadership team to bring a greater understanding of the impact of decisions made by senior colleagues.

Abiola Jinadu, Director of Midwifery, added:

We’ve worked hard to address issues raised by inspectors during previous visits and we’re delighted their feedback shows we’ve made the required improvements. 

We have more to do to provide the highest possible quality of care to every family and the CQC report highlights where we need to focus on.

One of the areas for us to improve is our rating in the safe domain which is requires improvement. This is due to governance processes (rather than clinical safety concerns) and relates to the closure of incidents in a timely fashion. Our team is working with external partners, who help us with our investigations, to address this.

Inspectors also noted that medicine prescription charts were not always kept up to date. The introduction next year of an electronic prescribing and medicines administration system will rectify this. 

In the meantime, staff have been reminded to improve the way they fill in these charts.

We are one of 12 trusts that are part of a national investigation into maternity services in England which is being led by Baroness Amos.

Reports from both the October 2024 and August 2025 inspections will be published on the CQC website on Wednesday 3 December.