Hartlepool hospital trust sees inspection rating fall to requires improvement after being told to improve maternity care

Health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an unannounced inspection of North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in May.

This was prompted by concerns about the quality and safety of services.

It looked at maternity services at both the University Hospital of Hartlepool and North Tees sites as well as services for children and young people at the Stockton-based North Tees hospital.

The CQC found maternity had gone down from good to requires improvement while services for children and young people remain good overall.

Its report stated: “Due to the ratings given at this inspection, the trust’s overall ratings of good across all domains changed to requires improvement in safe, effective and well-led.

"This meant that the trust’s overall rating changed from good to requires improvement.”

The CQC did not inspect medicine, surgery, urgent and emergency care, critical care, end of life care, outpatients or diagnostics.

But it says it will continue to monitor the quality of those services.

Outlining the reasons for the drop in rating, the CQC found the trust did not have enough medical and midwifery staff to care for patients and keep them safe.

Medical staff did not all have regular up-to-date appraisals.

At Hartlepool, the maternity service lacked senior leadership, with no head of or director of midwifery.

The CQC also found women who needed specialist care did not have access to dedicated specialist midwives.

Leadership of the trust was also found lacking with the CQC saying senior and executive leaders did not always operate effective governance systems to manage risks and issues within the service.

A number of key posts were also vacant or filled only on an interim basis.

The way the trust engaged with the local community was also criticised and complaints were not handled in line with the trust’s policy.

But the QCC found patients were treated with compassion, kindness, and respect and the trust provided emotional support to patients and families.

Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse, and generally controlled infection risk well.

A new faculty of leadership and improvement to support improvement across the organisation was highlighted as outstanding.

The CQC says the trust must take a number of actions to improve the areas flagged.

Trust leaders said they were disappointed and saddened at the CQC’s findings and will use it to drive real change and improvement.

Coming out of the pandemic, it says investment and innovation in services remains their priority.

It said: "From our strong financial recovery to our ground-breaking, market-leading approach to patient care, our colleagues and leadership team have worked tirelessly to provide the level of care our population deserves.

“The findings of the report have given our organisation a lot to consider, lessons to learn and improvements to make.

"We will act upon the report to create positive advances and we are already working at pace to implement appropriate changes and to support our staff with leadership and ambition befitting of our populations.

“It is also important for us to recognise and acknowledge the positive findings in the report, which will allow us to enhance our services and improve the quality of health for our region.”