Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is pleased to report that following an inspection in May this year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated maternity services at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary as GOOD.
This inspection was carried out as part of the CQC’s national maternity services 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.
Chief Nurse Rabina Tindale said: “We welcomed this inspection and subsequent report as it was an opportunity to showcase the excellent work we do in maternity services; the support we provide to our patients and staff and the improvements we continue to make. It was also an opportunity to demonstrate how we gain feedback from our patients and staff, how we learn and continuously improve, provide safe, effective and caring treatment and support to our patients, their families or carers.”
As well as maternity services remaining good overall, the rating for being well-led also remains rated as good. CQC did not look at effective, caring and responsive which still remain rated as good from their previous inspection.
However, the safe part of the rating has changed from good to requires improvement. The rating was reduced due to not all staff being up to date with some elements of mandatory training at the time of inspection.
Commenting on this Rabina said: “We would like to reassure our patients and the public that the service was already on track with year five of the training programme set by the National Maternity Incentive Scheme, which will see 90% of our staff trained by February 2024.”
Rabina continued: “I am very proud of our maternity service and this overall rating of good reflects the excellent services they provide. I am pleased the CQC has recognised that our staff work well together to care for our mothers and babies and that there is a leadership team that had the skills and abilities to manage the service well and they saw staff who were committed to improving services to ensure people received a high standard of care.”
During the visit the CQC Inspectors found the following:
- The service had enough staff to care for women and keep them safe
- Staff worked well together and with other organisations for the benefit of people. Staff understood how to protect people from abuse, and managed safety well
- The service controlled infection risk well and managed clinical waste well
- Staff assessed risks to people, acted on them and kept good care records
- Staff understood and followed medicine management processes and reported serious incidents when required
- Leaders monitored and managed safety and learned lessons from them
- Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills
- The service engaged well with women and the community offering services unique to their local population
- Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of women and people using the service
Rabina concluded: “It was particularly pleasing to see that the CQC had recognised that the maternity staff felt respected, supported and valued. The CQC also highlighted that the service promoted equality and diversity in daily work with an open positive, culture where women, their families and staff could raise concerns without fear. The team should all feel justifiably proud of their professionalism, care and compassion they demonstrate every day.”