MATERNITY services at Russells Hall Hospital have been rated as good following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspection was carried out in April and looked at whether areas were safe and well-led as part of CQC’s national maternity inspection programme which aims to provide an up-to-date view of the quality of hospital maternity care across the country.

Following the inspection, the overall rating for maternity, including the categories looking at whether services are safe and well-led, have moved up from requires improvement to good.

Carolyn Jenkinson, deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare at the CQC, said: “We were pleased to see widespread improvements in the quality of care being provided to women, people using the service and their babies, however, understaffing often affected the timeliness of care and treatment being provided.

“Staff were proud of the organisation and spoke highly of the supportive and inclusive culture with leaders that were visible and approachable. All staff were focused on providing the best possible care and were proactive in addressing any health inequalities.

“It was reassuring to see safety champions regularly reviewing incidents as well as doing frequent walk rounds of the service to observe and offer support to staff.

“The service should be commended for how well staff considered the needs of women and people using the service with protected characteristics. For example, staff ensured people with neuro-disabilities got additional help with their birth plans to support their individual needs. We were also told about an occasion where a British sign language interpreter was organised to support a woman for the whole of their labour.

“However, leaders need to continue to mitigate the impact of understaffing in the service. Often staff from the maternity ward who cared for women and people before and after birth were deployed to the labour ward to ensure safe care.

“We will continue to monitor the trust, including through future inspections, to ensure women and people using services continue to receive a good standard of care.”

Diane Wake, chief executive at The Dudley Group, said of the new rating for maternity services: “We are delighted.

“This achievement is down to the commitment and determination of staff to improve care for women, people using the service and their babies, and we are pleased the inspectors highlighted widespread improvement in the quality of care provided.

“The report notes how proud our staff are to work for the trust and spoke highly of the supportive and inclusive culture with visible and approachable leaders.

“It also acknowledges how our staff are focused on providing the best possible care and are proactive in addressing health inequalities.

“Our maternity safety champions regularly review incidents and conduct frequent walk rounds to offer support to staff and it’s good to see the inspectors were reassured by this.”

And she added: “Our staff will be pleased to see they have been commended for how they consider the needs of women and people using the service with protected characteristics.”

The overall rating for the trust remains as requires improvement.