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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
World
Anna Whittaker & Ellie Danemann

Nottingham maternity services are reinspected as trust is ‘closely monitored’ by watchdog

Healthcare inspectors have again visited the maternity units at Nottingham’s main hospitals to assess if they are moving forward from an ‘inadequate’ rating. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says Nottingham University Hospitals Trust “remains subject to close monitoring” after maternity was graded as inadequate following a 2020 inspection.

This week the commission said it returned to the service at the start of March to check its progress, adding a report on the latest visit will be published in “due course”. The watchdog also said it is also reviewing “a number of incidents” in maternity services which have occurred across the trust, which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital, dating back to 2018.

There have been dozens of baby deaths and injuries across the service, and millions of pounds paid out to families in compensation. The local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is also currently carrying out its own separate review into maternity services at the trust, but some grieving parents fear this is not enough and have called for a public inquiry.

Read more: Surprise as Nottingham revealed to be one of the unhealthiest places in the country

A spokesperson for the CQC said: “CQC inspected the trust’s maternity service in October 2020 and identified significant concerns around culture and leadership, staffing levels and the monitoring of risk. That inspection resulted in enforcement action and a follow up inspection in April 2021 found some progress had been made but that more work was needed to ensure safe high quality maternity care for all.

“The trust remains subject to close monitoring and we have recently carried out an inspection of maternity services. The inspection report detailing the findings of this will be published in due course.” Last week, Nottingham City Council’s health scrutiny committee wrote a letter to Health Secretary Sajid Javid about the maternity services after feeling they had “no choice” but to address the issue.

Councillor Georgia Power, who represents Bestwood for Labour on the city council, said concerns about the pace of improvement to maternity services at NUH are causing “significant anxiety for the public”. The committee also wrote to the CQC about its concerns.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee also wrote to Mr Javid last year calling for a public inquiry in order to ensure “that the trust does not ever again allow its maternity services to decline to this extent”. The CQC spokesperson added: “We are reviewing a number of incidents that have occurred in the trust’s maternity service since 2018 to establish whether there is evidence of failings at a provider level that warrant further action on our part.

"Those enquiries are ongoing and we will report further as soon as we are able to do so.” The trust said in a statement earlier this month it was doing “everything in our power to ensure the families using our maternity services get the best possible care”. Meanwhile, it's been reported that more maternity services could be moved to the Queen's Medical Centre under plans to reshape the city's hospitals.

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