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Maternity Teams at Peterborough City and Hinchingbrooke Hospitals have been delivering a range of care improvements as well as thousands of babies each year – which has resulted in 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 and as a result the rating for the service has been upgraded from ‘requires improvement,’ to ‘good.’

Inspectors said they could see the significant improvements that 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 Peterborough City, Hinchingbrooke and Stamford & Rutland 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.”

To read the full report, click  the below:

• Peterborough City Hospital
• Hinchingbrooke Hospital 

Improvements made by our maternity teams in the past 4 years include:

• Implementation of a new system to prioritise women who present to triage
• Investment in the maternity leadership team to include Heads of Midwifery at both sites and a Director of Midwifery to oversee the service
• Creation of a robust Education, Risk and Governance team who have been recognised in various award ceremonies for the work they are doing.
• Employment of an Equality, Inclusion and Diversity midwife to support care for the diverse population and hard to reach communities the Trust serves
• Appointment of a maternity non-executive director
• Development of a long-term plan to help address risk and issues