Two hospitals in West London have been praised by inspectors as “outstanding” places to give birth.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated maternity services at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital “outstanding” following an inspection.
The staff, who oversaw 4,832 deliveries between April 2022 and February 2023, were said to have “promoted a culture that placed people’s care at the heart of the service”.
“Dignity and respect were intrinsic elements of the culture and all staff we observed and spoke with clearly demonstrated this,” the report added.
Inspectors visited the unit in March as part of the CQC’s national maternity inspection programme.
A second hospital in the borough, St Mary’s Hospital, was also ranked ‘outstanding’ for its maternity services. While the site overall was stamped with a ‘requires improvement’ grade, the maternity ward was applauded for the staff’s ability to work together “for the benefit of women and birthing people”.
The report referenced that the service understood how to protect women from abuse, managed safety well, controlled infection risk, managed medicines and learned lessons from incidents.
Professor Tim Orchard, chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs both hospitals, said: “I’m delighted that our maternity services continue to be rated as outstanding, following this recent inspection.
“This is testament to the hard work and commitment of our staff, who should be very proud.
“I’m particularly pleased that the inspectors highlighted how staff work well together, the importance we place on engaging with our community and, most of all, how we are focused on the needs of patients.
“There is of course much work still to do as we continue on our journey to becoming the Trust we want to be – and know we can be.
“We are grateful for the CQC’s feedback and are making improvements to our services, including further embedding changes to triage procedures and guidelines, introducing a daily checklist for matrons and undertaking regular reviews of our day-to-day work.
“This continues to be a very challenging time for the NHS and for our staff. I am incredibly grateful to our teams who continue to go above and beyond every day to provide high-quality care for our patients.”
