Maternity care at Banbury's Horton Hospital downgraded
It follows a Care Quality Commission inspection last October.
Last updated 8th Mar 2024
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection of the Midwifery-led Unit on the Horton General Hospital site in Banbury on 23 October 2023.
They reviewed the service considering the Safe and Well-led domains and concluded that both were rated Requires Improvement.
Carolyn Jenkinson, the CQC's deputy director of secondary and specialist care, said: "When we inspected maternity services at Horton General Hospital we found a service with poor governance and ineffective systems and processes which meant women, people using the service and their babies could be put at risk of harm."
The way the unit stores medicine was another issue highlighted, with incorrect temperatures used as well as some medicine being out-of-date. The report also noted issues with confusion over cleaning the birthing pool.
This rating has led to the rating of the site being changed to Requires Improvement overall. But it's a further downgrading from an inspection in 2017.
Milica Redfearn, Director of Midwifery at Oxford University Hospitals, said: “We are disappointed by this result but we always welcome feedback on ways to improve our services and we will work with staff, women, and birthing people to make the improvements suggested. We have a great team at the Horton Midwifery-led Unit as the inspectors found when they visited."
The inspectors said that ‘the service engaged well with women and birthing people and the community to plan and manage services’, that there were enough staff, and that we kept women and birthing people safe.
Professor Meghana Pandit, Chief Executive Officer at Oxford University Hospitals, said: “As a learning organisation we will improve services along the lines highlighted in the report, although I am disappointed for the staff who have been working so hard to make improvements already.
“I want to be very clear that our commitment to the Horton General Hospital is unwavering, and although this new rating is a setback, we are immensely proud of our local hospital, the services it provides, and our wonderful staff."
"Our plans for the Horton as a modern district general hospital providing urgent and local care to the people of Banbury and surrounding areas are set out in our Clinical Strategy.
“Over recent years we have increased the capacity of the Brodey Centre, increased our ability to diagnose locally with the installation of a new CT scanner and a new blood testing service, increased specialist input to outpatient clinics such as more obstetrician-led clinics, and increased surgical and day case capacity. All of these improvements are designed to improve access to care locally for the people of Banbury and surrounding areas."