The hospital’s services were put under the microscope by the Care Quality Commission
Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Photo by Colin Lane
Maternity services at Liverpool’s specialist women’s hospital have been upgraded after a visit from health officials. Run by the NHS Foundation Trust which bears the same name, Liverpool Women’s Hospital is one of two specialist trusts in the UK, and the largest women’s hospital in Europe.
It provides care for a significant number of people with high levels of complexity and clinical risk, as well as serving a local population with significant deprivation. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected this service between March and May in part to follow up on whistle blowing concerns relating to the culture and leadership at the service.
The concerns were not substantiated during the inspection. It was also to follow up on breaches of regulation which were found at the previous inspection last January.
These were in relation to safe care and treatment, good management and staffing. Following this inspection, the trust is no longer in breach of these regulations.
The CQC has also upgraded the rating for how well-led the service is from requires improvement to good. Safe has gone up from inadequate to good, responsive has declined from outstanding to good, and effective and caring have been re-rated as good.
Liverpool Women’s Hospital(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Liverpool Women’s Hospital remains rated as good, and the trust overall rating remains unchanged and is rated as requires improvement. Karen Knapton, CQC deputy director of operations in the north west, said: “We were pleased to see that leaders and staff working in maternity services at Liverpool Women’s Hospital had acted on our feedback from the previous inspection and worked hard to make improvements.
“Women and people using this service now had a much safer and improved experience of their care and treatment. Behind this was an improvement in how well-led the service was which in turn supported staff to provide better care.
“For example, it was positive to hear that leaders had improved staffing levels. Women using the service told us there were enough staff to meet their needs, and they were treated with compassion and kindness.
“It was great to see this reflected in a recent people experience survey which found 94% of women felt they were treated with respect and dignity. Inspectors also found leaders had improved processes for managing people’s deteriorating health.
“Staff were now carrying out more timely observations so any concerns could be escalated appropriately ensuring people were kept safe and received the care they need. Overall, the maternity team at Liverpool Women’s Hospital should be proud of the improvements our inspection found.
“They should use them as a foundation to keep building on.”
The ECHO approached Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust for comment.