Nottingham University Hospitals says improved maternity feedback 'encouraging' amid review

Mums have scored Nottingham's heavily scrutinized maternity services much higher than in previous years in a new national survey. This year's National Maternity Survey, which is carried out by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission, has scored Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) higher than in previous years.

The survey recorded the experiences of 217 patients who were cared for at Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital in February 2024. While most scores were in line with national averages, the CQC found that 95 per cent of respondents felt their partner was able to stay with them for as long as they wanted in hospital after birth - which was much better than expected.

This was a significant improvement on how NUH had been rated on this aspect in the past, with just 27 per cent of women feeling this way in 2022. In 2022, senior midwife Donna Ockenden began an independent maternity services review into alleged failings at NUH, following hundreds of baby deaths and injuries.

A total of 1,998 families have already come forward to share their experiences with the review, making it the largest in NHS history. More than 100 families' birth stories have been referred to Nottinghamshire Police, which launched a criminal investigation last year.

NUH has been making changes in response to the review and its director of midwifery said the recent maternity survey results were "encouraging". Other improved results showed that a significant number of women felt they could get support or advice about feeding their baby during evenings, nights or weekends.

There were some lower scores in the feedback, with women and families flagging delays in discharge and the attention received by staff after birth but these were about the same as those at other trusts.

Sharon Wallis, director of midwifery at NUH said: “Our teams continue to work together to make improvements to our services and these results and feedback are important in helping us to shape our maternity services going forward. It is really pleasing to see that our patients have scored us better and that women and families feel listened to. It’s important for women and families to spend those precious first days together so we try to make it as comfortable as possible.

"While the results are encouraging, we know there is more to do and we are committed to our maternity improvement programme to deliver the best patient care in our maternity services.” In recent months, the trust has opened a new fetal medicine unit, relaunched its homebirth service and recruited more than 50 new midwives as part of its improvement programme.