Every Yorkshire maternity service rated as CQC says almost half in UK need to improve
Nearly half of all maternity services inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) last year across England needed to improve, new data reveals.
The CQC have said they are concerned "too many women and babies are not receiving the high-quality maternity care they deserve" following a series of inspections across England last year. Investigating 131 locations between August 2022 and December 2023, the CQC found almost half were not good enough.
According to their data, 36% of them were rated as requires improvement, while 12% were rated as inadequate. Just four percent were rated as outstanding and 48% were rated as good.
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Yorkshire has a vast range of maternity services, and each have at one point or another, been inspected by the CQC. Here are the ratings for each hospital in Yorkshire and their maternity services.
Airedale General Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Barnsley Hospital: Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Bradford Royal Infirmary: Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Calderdale Royal Hospital: Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Good
Dewsbury and District Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Good
Doncaster Royal Infirmary: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Friarage Hospital (Northallerton): Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Harrogate and District: Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary: Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Good
Hull Royal Infirmary: Overall - Inadequate, Maternity Services - Inadequate
Jessop Wing (Sheffield): Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Requires Improvement
Leeds General Infirmary: Overall - Good, Maternity Services - Good
Pinderfields Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Good
Pontefract Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Good
Rotherham General Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Good
Scarborough Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Services - Inadequate
St James' University Hospital: Overall - Requires Improvement, Maternity Wards - Good
York Hospital: Overall - Inadequate, Maternity Services - Inadequate
The CQC also said none of the maternity services inspected in the programme were rated as outstanding in regards to being safe. Meanwhile, almost half, or 47%, were rated as requires improvement for safety, with 35% good and 18% inadequate, making safety a top concern.
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They added: "While many of the issues we highlight in this report are systemic, with the right culture, services can improve and learn from one another. Alongside this report, we have worked with providers, maternity staff and stakeholder organisations to develop some additional resource materials which can be implemented at trust-level.
"These resources are available on our website and are aimed at maternity service staff at all levels to help support their efforts to deliver high-quality care and make improvements where needed."
The CQC went on to say that more work needed to be done around the way services report and learn from safety incidents, while there is "significant" variation around maternity triage as there are no national targets. The report also talked about "chronic issues" around recruitment and retention as well as a number of "unsuitable" maternity suites, which lacked space and facilities as well as potentially life-saving equipment.
In addition, the report found "significant differences in the way trusts collect and use demographic data to address health inequalities in their local populations", which is vital as date from January 2024 shows Black women are 2.8 times more likely to die during or up to six weeks after pregnancy compared with white women. Asian women are 1.7 times more likely to die.
The report added: "Communication with women and their families is not always good enough, particularly for those with protected equality characteristics. This affects their ability to consent to treatment and can perpetuate levels of fear and anxiety.
"Through our Give feedback on care service, many women told us that a lack of communication negatively affected their birth experiences. A cultural shift is needed so that all women are given the information they need, in a way they understand it, to make informed decisions and consent to treatment."