Maternity services across North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trustr (NCIC) have earned a 'good' rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), following an unannounced inspection in April.

The CQC undertook an inspection at the maternity units of Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, and Penrith Birthing Unit.

Summarising, the CQC said: “Staff worked well together for the benefit of women and birthing people, understood how to protect women and birthing people from abuse, and managed safety well.

"The service controlled infection risk well. Staff assessed risks to women and birthing people, acted on them and kept good care records.

"They managed medicines well. The service managed safety incidents well and learned lessons from them. 

"Leaders ran services well using reliable information systems and supported staff to develop their skills.

"Managers monitored the effectiveness of the service and made sure staff were competent.

"Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of women and birthing people receiving care."

NCIC maternity services was praised for being accessible to people when needed.

As well as the overall rating, the 'well-led' rating remains 'good'.

However, they found that in terms of safety, the service now 'requires improvement' with some actions for the service to address.

Other domains which were not inspected on this occasion - caring, responsive and effective - remain rated as 'good'.

Several areas highlighted by the CQC have already seen action being taken, including medicines management, resuscitation training, and staff support with professional development.

Jill Foster, Chief Nurse at NCIC said: “Maternity services across the country are under intense scrutiny following recent tragic events. Maintaining a rating of ‘good’ is a great achievement by the team and I am very proud of them.

“The safety of women and birthing people and their children is of the highest importance to us all and we welcome the fact that the CQC has highlighted some areas where we can make further improvements to make sure we deliver safe high quality care every time.

“We are already acting on those recommendations because we want to learn and continually improve our services for women and birthing people in north Cumbria.

“We know we have the strong leadership in place to make those improvements, with the CQC continuing to rate our Maternity teams as ‘good’ for ‘well-led’ in Carlisle and Whitehaven and upgrading the team at Penrith to ‘good’. It is great that our leadership team were recognised for their skills and abilities as well as their role in supporting staff to develop their careers.

“I was also pleased to note that staff feel respected, supported and valued which is so important in creating an open culture and delivering excellent care.

“The importance of listening to people who use our maternity services cannot be underestimated. We have a close working relationship with our local Maternity Voices Partnership who have had input into our strategy and vision.

“We are proud of our team for the dedication, professionalism and caring attitude that they show each day which was also reflected in the results of the CQC’s national maternity survey last year when NCIC scored higher than the national average when rated by women and birthing people”