Airedale hospital maternity services require improvement, say CQC inspectors

Airedale General Hospital's maternity services suffered from a shortage of nurses and midwives, the CQC said

Maternity services at a West Yorkshire hospital must improve, inspectors have said.

Staffing shortages at Airedale General Hospital in Keighley could put women and babies at risk, a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report found.

The NHS watchdog downgraded the service's rating from good to requires improvement.

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said this was "disappointing" but it was already making changes to improve.

The CQC inspected the hospital's maternity services in December as part of a national improvement programme.

Its report, published on Thursday, warned the hospital did not have enough nurses and midwives to keep women and babies safe.

The service was unable to provide evidence of some mandatory training, including in safeguarding, and its maternity assessment centre had no clear system in place to risk-assess and prioritise patients, inspectors said.

But staff worked well together and managed safety incidents well, the report added.

'Work to do'

Carolyn Jenkinson, the CQC's deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said: "We found staff were focused on the needs of people in their care, however staffing shortages had impacted on their morale as they felt they couldn't always give women and people using the service the standard of care they needed.

"The trust leadership team know where improvements are needed and we will continue to monitor the service, including through future inspections, to ensure people are receiving the high standard of care they deserve."

The NHS trust said it accepted the watchdog's recommendations for improvement.

Amanda Stanford, the hospital's chief nurse and executive director for midwifery, added: "We know we have work to do, particularly around our governance and processes, but I would like to assure families that our maternity services are safe, and well-run, and the CQC highlighted many examples of good practice."

Airedale General Hospital was rated requires improvement by the CQC following its last full inspection in 2019.

Inspectors who visited in December looked only at maternity services and did not issue a rating for the wider hospital.

The government announced last week the hospital would be rebuilt by 2030 due to severe structural problems.

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