Cambridge maternity hospital requires improvement, inspectors say

Staff were skilled and supportive, but there were not always enough to "keep women and babies safe", inspectors found

There were not "always enough staff to ensure people were cared for safely" at a maternity unit, an inspection found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited the Rosie Maternity Unit in Cambridge in May.

They rated the service provided as "requires improvement".

Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust's chief nurse Lorraine Szeremeta said she was pleased the CQC reported "good practice" as well as areas "we need to improve".

The CQC inspected maternity services at the Rosie, which is on the same site as Addenbrooke's Hospital, with both hospitals run by CUH.

The Rosie is the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust trust's maternity hospital

Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC deputy director of secondary specialist healthcare, said there were "some examples of great practice".

She also praised "the hard work of existing staff who were skilled, supportive, and dedicated to continuous improvement".

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But the report said there were "not enough medical staff to keep women and babies safe" and this "impacted on the support maternity triage received to maintain safe care for women".

It recognised the high cost of living in Cambridge had an impact on hospital recruitment.

The CQC found the maternity services to be well-led and rated that area good, but the overall rating was requires improvement due to the safety issue.

Ms Szeremeta said: "Many of the improvements identified by the CQC are already being addressed through our comprehensive maternity improvement plan and this work continues to ensure we deliver the high-level of care our patients rightly expect."

Since the inspection it has improved its triage process, introduced a training week and reduced vacancy levels in midwifery to less than 2%.