Maternity services at Royal Stoke University Hospital are now officially 'good' – two years after inspectors warned that mothers and babies were being put at risk.

The Care Quality Commission said the hospital had made 'significant improvements' since the last inspection in 2023, when it was rated as 'requires improvement' overall, and 'inadequate' in relation to safety.

Following the 2023 inspection, bosses were issued with a warning notice calling for urgent improvements, with the CQC saying that a lack of effective systems was exposing service users and their babies to 'risk of harm'.

But this notice has now been removed, after CQC inspectors carried out a follow-up inspection in November.

Maternity services at the Royal Stoke are now rated as 'good' overall – the second highest rating – with individual 'good' ratings for leadership and safety. Steven Paisley, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, welcomed the improvements made since the last inspection.

He said: "We were pleased to see that leaders and staff working in maternity services at Royal Stoke University Hospital had acted on our feedback from the previous inspection and worked hard to make improvements.

"Women and people using these services 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.

"Leaders thoroughly reviewed incidents to identify improvements and shared learnings to reduce the risk of these happening again. They also held weekly risk meetings to help keep people admitted to the unit safe."

Mr Paisley said that the trust was 'proactive' in seeking feedback from service users, and that staff showed 'care and compassion when supporting families. He added: "Overall, the maternity team at Royal Stoke University Hospital should be proud of the improvements our inspection found.

"We have identified some areas where they can make continued progress, and we look forward to seeing their plans develop."

Inspectors found that staff knew how to identify and report safeguarding concerns, and that there was a 'strong culture of quality improvement'.

The service carried out regular audits and benchmarked their performance against other hospitals, while leaders had a good understanding of their local area. Inspectors noted that unit was clean and medicines were securely locked away.

But they also found that some staff did not feel confident that leaders would act on the concerns they raised. And there were times when staffing was below recommended levels due to cover being needed elsewhere.

University Midlands of North Midlands, which runs the Royal Stoke, says it has put in place a 'detailed programme of improvement work' to implement the recommendations of the national Ockenden review on maternity services. Senior leaders welcomed the CQC report, but said they would work to make further improvements.

UHNM chief nurse Ann-Marie Riley said: "We are delighted that the CQC have recognised the significant improvements our maternity service has made. It is testament to hard work of our teams who work continually to improve experiences for those who use our services.

"We remain committed to delivering the highest standards possible for the people using our services and will continue to drive improvements across the services we provide."

Chief executive Simon Constable said: "I welcome this rating from the CQC on behalf of our maternity staff. It is important that people are reassured that the care they will receive is safe and it is good the improvements we have made have been recognised.

"However, we are not complacent and are committed to continue to improve for the benefit of all those who use our maternity services and their families."

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