Leighton Hospital's overall rating from The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has declined from 'good' to 'requires improvement,' following a report released on Friday 19 April.

CQC, who are the independent regulator of health and social care in England, inspected Leighton Hospital in September 2023.

Maternity services at the Crewe hospital, run by Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were inspected as part of CQC's national maternity services inspection programme.

CQC, who are the independent regulator of health and social care in England, inspected Leighton Hospital in September 2023 (CQC).

The programme aims to provide an up-to-date view of the quality of hospital maternity care across the country.

Leighton Hospital's overall rating for maternity services at has declined from 'good' to 'requires improvement.'

This rating for well-led has gone down from 'good' to 'requires improvement' They have also been re-rated as 'requires improvement' for how safe they are.

The inspection didn't rate how effective, caring, and responsive the service was. 

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's overall rating remains as 'good.'

CQC's deputy director of secondary and specialist care, Carolyn Jenkinson, said: "When we inspected maternity services at Leighton Hospital, we were disappointed to find the care provided was not at the level women, people using the service, and their babies have a right to expect.

CQC's deputy director of secondary and specialist care, Carolyn Jenkinson (CQC).

"We found leaders had the right skills and abilities to run the service, but didn't always understand the issues the service was facing or take action when they needed to make improvements.

"There were delays between some incidents being reported and staff also weren't always reporting incidents when they should.

"Leaders weren't always taking timely action to address and review issues when they were found. This included occasions where people had experienced bleeding after giving birth.

"We found the service didn't have enough medical or midwifery staff to match the planned numbers working.

"The lack of staff had led to delays when people needed planned and emergency caesarean sections.

"Leaders hadn't taken steps to address these problems, even though it was putting women, people using the service, and their babies at risk of harm.

Leighton Hospital's overall rating for maternity services at has declined from 'good' to 'requires improvement' (Ryan Parker).

"We found that staff were doing their best and were focused on the needs of people using the service despite these challenges.

"Since the inspection last year, the trust have provided investment and made improvements to the maternity service.

"We will continue to monitor the service, including through future inspections.

"If we're not assured that the trust has made improvements, we will not hesitate to take further action to keep people safe."

The CQC report was positive of Leighton Hospital's leaders being 'generally visible' and 'approachable' to people using the service as well as staff.

Maternity services at the Crewe hospital, run by Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were inspected as part of CQC's national maternity services inspection programme (Ryan Parker).

It said the maternity service handled complaints 'well,' with staff apologising and providing women and people affected with 'suitable' support when things went wrong.

The service also 'engaged well' with the local community to plan and make improvements as it worked with the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership on their strategy.

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