Milton Keynes University Hospital’s maternity services awarded Good rating by Care Quality Commission
Milton Keynes University Hospital’s maternity services have been awarded a Good rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The report, published on Tuesday October 7, follows an inspection that took place in the summer of 2024 following information received about poor staffing and culture within the service.
The maternity services received a Good rating for safety, effectiveness, care and responsiveness, however leadership was graded as required improvement.
The hospital has 36 dedicated maternity beds, out of 605 total beds across the trust.
Results from the most recent inspection are combined with a previous inspection in March 2023.
Divisional chief midwife Elaine Gilbert said: “This rating is testament to the hard work of our staff who have listened to service users and reflected feedback in the day-to-day delivery of maternity care.
“The latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection highlighted a number of improvements we can make, including in the ‘well-led’ domain.
“This report is now almost 18 months old and, since the inspection, we have made significant improvements and positive changes to the service, focusing particularly on the areas covered under the ‘well-led’ area of the CQC’s assessment programme.
“At the time of the inspection last summer, a new maternity services leadership team had just been put in place.
“We have made good progress on priority areas such as induction of labour and postnatal ward experience and have put in place an expanded team which includes an additional matron, a new head of midwifery, new governance roles and three more consultants.”
Inspectors said that during their onsite assessment patients were mostly positive about the staff treating them with warmth and kindness and providing effective care and treatment.
On the well-led area of the report, inspectors said prior to their assessment a small number of anonymous whistleblowing escalated concerns regarding a poor culture within maternity.
During the assessment inspectors saw that staff were not able to take breaks as otherwise there would not be sufficient cover on the ward.
Following the inspection the trust responded to confirm there was an internal process to monitor breaks.
The report was published on the same day that Milton Keynes Hospital unveiled new architectural impressions of its proposed new hospital building, which is set to provide a new space for maternity and children’s services.