Improvements made at two Cambridgeshire hospital maternity units

Inspectors at Hinchingbrook and Peterborough City Hospitals said mothers and babies are receiving better care

Midwife
Author: Victoria HornagoldPublished 8th Jun 2023
Last updated 8th Jun 2023

Maternity Teams at Peterborough City and Hinchingbrooke Hospitals have had their service being rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission.

The efforts of the teams working across the units, run by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, were recognised by CQC inspectors when they visited in April.

The result was previously 'requires improvement'.

Inspectors said they could see significant improvements had been made since visiting four years ago and how women, people using the service, and babies are all receiving better care as a result.

The implementation of a new system at both sites to prioritise those who presented to triage, helping to keep them safe, was singled out as a fantastic tool.

They also highlighted how visible and supportive leaders were, which subsequently supported staff to focus on delivering improved care for women and birthing people.

The maternity unit at Peterborough City Hospital was last inspected in 2019, where inspectors had originally ranked it as ‘inadequate,’ under the domain of ‘well-led.’

This has now moved up two ratings to ‘good,’ along with the domain of ‘safe’ which was rated as ‘requires improvement.’

At the Hinchingbrooke maternity unit, inspectors increased its rating under the domain of ‘well-led’ from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good.’

Jo Bennis, Chief Nurse at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospitals said: “I am extremely proud of our maternity and obstetric teams and the depth of work that has been undertaken in the past few years and would like to thank our staff for their fantastic support.

"I’m really pleased that the inspectors could see the dedication and determination of our staff to improve the care our women, babies and their families receive.

“We know there is still work to do for us to progress even further on our improvement journey. We will continue to work with our teams, service user groups, healthcare partners and communities to provide a high-quality maternity service.”

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