News and events

Maternity services across Newcastle Hospitals have been rated among the best in the country for their care provided to mums and babies.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today published results of its national maternity survey – with the Trust identified as one of nine nationally who performed ‘better than expected’ in many key areas.

The survey asks women about their experiences of care at three different stages of their maternity journey - antenatal care, labour and birth and postnatal care – and 181 women who gave birth at the Royal Victoria Infirmary responded.

Their feedback placed staff highly for:

• introducing themselves before examination or treatment
• attention during labour
• clear communication
• respect and dignity during labour and birth
• patients having confidence and trust in the staff caring for them
• care in hospital after birth

Our maternity teams – who oversee the safe delivery of over 6,500 babies every year - were also recognised for reducing delays with discharge, attending to patients when needed, being treated with kindness and understanding, and providing information and explanations after birth.

In 2016 the CQC rated the Newcastle Hospitals’ maternity services after observing a “highly committed, enthusiastic team, each sharing a passion and responsibility for delivering a high-quality service”, who “treated women with kindness, dignity and respect.”

“We are thrilled to be seen as a national leader in maternity care as clearly demonstrated by these latest CQC results,” says Maurya Cushlow, Executive Chief Nurse.

“Listening to women and families about their experiences – what we do well and where we can improve – is absolutely essential and the outcome of this patient survey is testament to the hard work and dedication of our maternity teams.”

Elaine Blair, Head of Midwifery adds: “One of the best ways to measure the quality of our maternity services is to seek feedback. In addition to these fantastic results from the CQC survey, we actively seek the views of all women across Newcastle who have been in our care, through our Maternity Voices Partnership.

“This approach ensures we can include vulnerable and hard to reach women. This is incredibly important to enable us to shape the future of our maternity services to meet the diverse needs of the women in our care.”

Read the full report here:   https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RTD/survey/5