In January 2023, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were visited by the CQC (Care Quality Commission), who carried out an unannounced focused inspection at St Peter’s Hospital as part of the national maternity inspection programme. The inspection was to look at how safe and well-led maternity services were.
Following the inspection, the CQC published a report on 29 March 2023. Our maternity service has been rated Inadequate.
Providing safe, high quality care for our patients is our priority and the CQC recognised some areas of good practice. This included our engagement with women and the community to plan and manage services. Staff were recognised for working hard despite workforce challenges and were sympathetic to the needs of women receiving care, and understood the service’s vision and values, and how to apply them in their work.
We take the concerns raised during the inspection extremely seriously and apologise to any women, babies, and families for who the care or experience we provided did not meet the expected standards.
Following the inspection in January we have been taking urgent action to make significant improvements to the quality and safety of care provided. This includes:
- increasing clinical staff in our maternity triage unit to care for women safely,
- extending the unit to improve the experience and dignity of those in our care and
- taking action to ensure staff training compliance and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) across the service are improved.
We remain committed to giving both those using our maternity service and the CQC confidence in the quality and safety of our care.
If you have any concerns about your maternity care, please contact Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) by calling 01932 723553 or emailing
Julie Smith, Chief Executive
Andrea Lewis, Chief Nurse
Dr David Fluck, Medical Director
