Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has said that it remains committed to continued improvement in its maternity services, recognising there is more work to do following the publication of the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report.
The report from the healthcare regulator, which reviewed services at Nottingham City Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in May 2025, found that there had been no change in the Trust’s overall rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ for maternity services.
Ratings are broken down into five areas: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. City Hospital and QMC were both rated ‘Good’ for effective, caring and responsive. They were rated ‘Requires Improvement’ for safe and well-led.
Anthony May, Chief Executive at NUH, said: “We are grateful for the feedback from the CQC following the inspection in May 2025 and have taken action to address the areas that they identified for us to improve.
“We can assure the public and our staff that we take concerns around safety, leadership and security seriously.
“Since the inspection report, we have created additional ways for staff to give feedback and discuss learning. Our midwifery staffing position has improved, and we have committed to increasing obstetrician staffing above establishment. We have reviewed our security policies in response to the feedback and have completed safety drills at both sites to test our abduction policy.
“When reflecting on these reports, they give us the opportunity to recognise improvements. The report highlights 97% positive feedback in our Friends and Family Test, with patients having ‘nothing but praise’ for our staff, explaining that they were treated with kindness and compassion.
“I should like to thank our staff for their hard work, often in difficult circumstances. I should also like to thank the women and families who use our services for their invaluable feedback.
“We recognise that there is still a way to go, but we remain committed to providing safe and effective services, working with staff and families to implement vital further improvements in our maternity services.”
Later this year, the Independent Maternity Review (IMR), led by Donna Ockenden, will be published. The Trust continues to work with Donna and her team to support the review and implement improvements in its services.
Of the review, Anthony May said: “The publication of the IMR will be an important milestone for affected families, and I hope it will give them the answers they want and deserve.”
Background
During their inspections, the CQC identified three breaches of regulation relating to security, staffing and management of the service. An action plan is being prepared to be submitted to the CQC, and colleagues have already made changes in some of these areas:
Staffing
The NUH Clinical Director for Maternity is leading a plan to address obstetrics staffing, an area where the Trust has had low recruitment for some time. We are holding interviews for these roles this month and have put a plan forward to consider increasing our resident doctors. Where there are gaps, bank staff are used. The Trust has seen big improvements in midwifery staffing in the last two years. As of this month, there are 15 WTE midwifery vacancies, with further interviews taking place this week. In 2024, we were at 51 WTE.
Safe care and treatment – security, medicine management
An abduction policy is already in place, with two drills taking place in July 2025 and further drills scheduled. We last enacted the use of the policy in 2024, and the appropriate processes were followed. Babies on our wards are kept safe with swipe-door access, reception staff trained to support identification of those coming in and out of the wards, stop-and-challenge processes in place for those entering wards, encouragement for mother and baby to stay together as much as possible, photo ID for all staff, CCTV and security staff in place. We are working to make improvements in staff training around security to enhance the use of the policy and protocols. The baby-tagging system and security protocols, such as department sign-ins, which are already in place, are being reviewed. A medicine management review has been conducted to review methods of monitoring and governance of medicines. Two pharmacy technicians conduct regular medicine audits and expiry checks. This has resulted in positive audit outcomes and feedback from staff. A breastmilk storage audit has been introduced.
Good governance – in relation to organisational culture, staff wellbeing and engagement, and the visibility of leadership
There are now more ways for staff to share feedback, including independently facilitated sessions with leadership and consultants, a new risk management policy, shared learning workshops, and monthly leadership briefings with all staff. We are working with staff to develop an action plan that works for them, one where they feel they are able to see leadership more and can see that their concerns are listened to and acted on. Recruitment of a new Clinical Director of Maternity and three Clinical Psychologists to support staff is under way.
