Portsmouth and Gosport maternity services rated "good" after CQC inspection

Maternity services run by the Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) in Queen Alexandra Hospital, St Mary's Hospital and at Gosport's War Memorial Hospital were given a "good" rating by the Care Quality Commission followings an inspection in October 2023. The results have arrived at the same time as the outcomes of the CQC’s National Maternity Survey 2023, where the Trust had positive responses to most of the questions answered by patients about their experiences.

The Chief Executive of the PHU, Penny Emerit, was delighted with the results. She said: “I am so pleased that the hard work and commitment of our team has been recognised in this way. Our teams can be proud of this Good rating. And even more importantly, they can be proud of the positive impact that their focus on improving has for our community and colleagues."

The CQC found a number of areas to highlight including that staff were well trained and understood how to protect women and birthing people from abuse, and manage safety well. Staff also told the inspectors that they felt respected and praised the safety culture and collaborative working in the service.

Director of Maternity Services and Midwifery Lynn Woolley said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have achieved this Good rating and it reflects the hard work of all our teams who want to give the best possible care. We know that good doesn’t mean perfect and the service is working hard in partnership with families to understand where we can do better, so we can continue making improvements.”

While the overall rating was "good" there were some areas listed as needing improvement by the CQC. The report stated: "While midwifery staffing levels were improving they did not always match the planned numbers putting the safety of women, birthing people and babies at risk." Overall, however the report was positive for all three hospitals in a busy and demanding environment. QA alone had 4,874 babies born there between October 2022 and September 2023

Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC's Deputy Director of Secondary and Specialist Care, said: “When we visited maternity services at Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust, we found leaders had effective systems and processes supporting staff to provide good care. Inspectors saw staff at all three hospitals had the skills and knowledge to keep women, people using the service, and their babies safe. The trust has also set up a new maternity passport which was developed with the local community and aims to improve the experience for women and people using the service who have a learning disability.”

The Trust was also praised for its ongoing improvement projects which include work to engage with less-heard groups from the local community such as Filipino, Ghanaian, and Nigerian communities. The full reports for all three hospitals can be found here.