Review of maternity services 2007
Our review explored how organisations in the NHS are improving the way in which they deliver maternity services.
In our review 26% of organisations were assessed as best performing, 31% as better performing, 22% as fair performing and 21% as least well performing.
An assessment of ‘least well performing' does not mean that a trust is providing care which is unsafe. If we have concerns that a trust is unsafe, we do not hesitate to use our powers of enforcement by, for example, carrying out investigations.
Find out how your local trust performed
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1. East of England |
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Download a spreadsheet of the scores and individual scores for each organisation (xls 112kb) (opens new window)
How we carried out the assessment
We looked at a range of issues, including;
- quality of clinical care
- womens' feedback on their experience
- department resources (e.g. midwife and obstetrician staffing) and how these relate to the number of deliveries managed by the trust
- quality of facilities
- types of services made available to women
Trusts have been placed into four categories:
- least well performing
- fair performing
- better performing
- best performing
The review is based on relative assessments. An overall assessment of least well performing implies that a trust is lagging behind other trusts in some key delivery areas. It does not in itself suggest unacceptable practice. Similarly those scoring as best performing are ahead of other trusts but still have scope for improvement.
Notes
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs its maternity services in partnership with Gloucester Primary Care Trust and these services have been assessed together. Stroud Maternity Hospital maternity unit is run by Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust. Cheltenham General Hospital and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital maternity units are run by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
- Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust runs its maternity services in partnership with Devon Primary Care Trust. Honiton Hospital, Okehampton Community Hospital and Tiverton & District Hospital are run by Devon Primary Care Trust. Heavitree Hospital is run by Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.
- Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust scores for the three indicators ‘women not receiving NICE recommended number of antenatal appointments’, ‘postnatal care of women and babies’ and ‘choice and continuity for antenatal care’ were restricted because the survey of recent mothers was not carried out appropriately for questions affecting this indicator.
- North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust score for one indicator , ‘extent of choice in labour’ was restricted because the survey of recent mothers was not carried out appropriately for questions affecting this indicator.
- Weston Area Health NHS Trust and The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust took part in the maternity service review, but have not been included in the scored assessment as they only provide midwife-led care, and the numbers of deliveries are low. It was not appropriate to provide a score as only a small proportion of the assessment framework was relevant to these trusts.
Further information
The individual trust report provides an overview of the scoring methodology applied.
Click here for a full description of the scoring methodology (pdf 76kb) (opens in a new window)
Information provided to trusts during the review including copies of the questionnaires
Click here for more information on the questionnaires
Click here for more information about the survey of recent mothers
Most reports on this site are PDF files, to view any PDF file you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.