Maternity services at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust have been rated ‘good’, following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in February.
The inspection at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, was carried out as part of CQC’s national maternity services inspection programme. This will give 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.
Following this inspection, the overall rating for maternity services is ‘good’. It has also been rated as good for being safe and well-led.
Gill Findley, Deputy Chief Executive, Chief Nurse and Professional Lead for Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals at Gateshead Health said: “I am delighted that the maternity services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been rated as ‘good’ overall following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February this year.
“As part of this review, we were rated as ‘good’ for services being well-led and for services being safe.
“The CQC highlighted some areas of outstanding practice which we are especially proud of. These included:
- the diabetes specialist midwives creating an educational session for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) and offering one-on-one sessions to non-English speaking women and birthing individuals with interpreting services
- a grab bag project that was established to provide basic necessities to vulnerable women and birthing individuals who are fleeing domestic violence
- the service implemented postnatal contraception and provided advice and information on pre-conceptive advice, tobacco dependency, alcohol misuse, positive mental health, nutrition, and physical activity within antenatal clinics to support women.
“The leadership around the service was highlighted as ‘good’. The report shows that the service is managed by capable leaders who possess the necessary skills and abilities to address its priorities and issues. Our maternity leadership team is supported by specialist midwives and all staff are committed to continually learning and improving services.
“The report also highlighted how well the maternity team work together for the benefit of women and birthing people. Our team continues to be dedicated to delivering excellent care to families and we remain committed to doing so.
“We will continue to develop and improve the services so we can provide high quality and safe care to all women and birthing people. We encourage all families that use our services to share their opinions and feedback as we use these to constantly improve our maternity service.”
CQC inspectors found the following:
- Staff worked well together, understood how to protect people from abuse, and managed safety well.
- Staff understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work. Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent.
- It engaged well with people using the service as well as the community to plan and manage services.
- Safety incidents were managed well and lessons were learnt from them.
- The service-controlled infection risk well.
- Staff assessed risks to people, acted on them and kept good care records. They managed medicines well.
- Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of people receiving care. Staff were clear about their roles and accountabilities.