Warning notice lifted at Liverpool Women's Hospital by CQC

The boss of Liverpool Women's Hospital said "we know we still have work to do"

A warning notice placed on a hospital has been removed by the health watchdog.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out a focused inspection in January which noted improvements to staffing at Liverpool Women's Hospital.

Inspectors, however, described finding out-of-date equipment on emergency trollies and problems remained with monitoring at-risk patients.

Hospital boss James Sumner said "we know we still have work to do".

The CQC said it had carried out the follow-up inspection to check on the progress of urgent improvements ordered as part of the warning notice, imposed after the previous inspection in February, 2023.

'Enough staff'

The regulator said: "The service had enough staff to keep women, people using the service and their babies safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment."

As the latest visit was only a "focused inspection" the CQC said the trust's overall rating would remain unchanged, at "requires improvement".

According to the inspection report, three emergency trollies were examined and out-of-date items were discovered on all three.

The CQC said this was "immediately addressed" when raised with staff.

The inspectors also raised concerns staff were not always following the Modified Early Obstetric Warning Score (MEOWS) system, which is designed to help staff recognise early when patients are deteriorating.

Some data related to performance and patient safety was not always reliable, the inspectors found.

Mr Sumner said he was "pleased" the CQC inspection had concluded the necessary improvements had been made since early last year.

He added: "We will continue to make progress as part of our trust's wider improvement programme.

"We look forward to welcoming the CQC back in the future to conduct further inspections of the trust's services to allow us to demonstrate our ongoing improvements."