New Cross Hospital maternity unit rated 'good' despite 'not always having enough staff'

The Care Quality Commission inspectors downgraded The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust hospital from "good" to "requires improvement" for safety but "good" overall.

Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC head of hospital inspection, said: "When we visited maternity services at New Cross Hospital, we found a service which engaged well with women and the community to plan and manage services. Its leaders were focused on the needs of women receiving care and were committed to making any necessary improvements.

"Although we found a well-run maternity service, there wasn’t always enough staff with the right skills and qualifications to care for women and keep them safe. However, managers regularly reviewed and adjusted staffing levels and skill mix, and gave bank and agency staff a full induction."

She added: "Additionally, women accessing the triage service didn’t always have timely telephone access to a midwife which must be addressed.

“We will continue to monitor the service closely, including through future inspections, to ensure women are receiving a high standard of care.”

During the inspection in October inspectors found staff worked well together for the benefit of women and understood how to protect women from abuse.

The service also controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to women, acted on them and kept good care records. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them.

Leaders ran services well using mostly reliable information systems. Staff were supported to develop skills and staff felt respected, supported and valued. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities.

However, equipment checks were not always carried out in line with trust policy and some medicines were not stored safely.

Not all trust policies available on the trust intranet were in date and some did not follow evidence based best practice. However, since the inspection some improvements have been made to bring policies up to date.

The full report will be published on the CQC’s website today.