Our maternity teams have been celebrating this week after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that they are providing high quality services to women and families in our care.

The departments at Wexham Park and Frimley Park both achieved ‘Good’ ratings this week following detailed CQC inspections in May. This is great news and means that the Trust’s overall rating remains Good, with Wexham Park Hospital also rated Good and Frimley Park Hospital 'Outstanding'.

The results are especially laudable given the intense public scrutiny into maternity care nationally following serious safety concerns at other hospital, as highlighted by the Ockenden review of maternity services and other reports.

The QCQ report published this week highlighted several areas of good practice by our maternity teams, including the implementation and use of MAMAS Line, our 24-hour maternity triage and advice phone service, birthing plans that are co-produced with safeguarding teams and our work in areas such as cultural sensitivities and health inequalities. 

CQC inspectors visited Frimley Park and Wexham Park in late May 2023 as part of the national maternity services inspection programme.  

Maternity services at both of our sites were rated ‘Good’ overall and also for being well led, while inspectors say there remains room for improvement in safety at both sites – highlighting staffing levels and compliance with training.

Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC deputy director of secondary and specialist care, said: “We found people generally received good care at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust maternity services. Leaders had the skills and abilities to help staff meet the needs of women and other people using services. They also supported and encouraged staff to develop their skills for the benefit of people using services. 

“We found staff managing challenges well and working to continually improve services for people using them. This included engaging well with women and birthing people using the service to plan and manage their care.”

Thanking staff for maintaining good levels of service through some extremely challenging circumstances, Chief of Nursing and Midwifery Lorna Wilkinson said: “We are of course very pleased with this result and are still committed to continuously improving our services, not only meeting the expectations of those who use them but exceeding them.

“We have confidence in our ability to further develop our maternity services and the recent inspection highlighted some areas of improvement including mandatory training and staffing levels. We have already embarked on a focused programme of improvements and will ensure these areas are tackled as a priority.” 

You can read the full CQC reports here for Frimley Park Hospital and here for Wexham Park Hospital.