New maternity inspection raises security concerns

A new partial inspection of maternity services in Nottingham, the subject of the largest inquiry of its kind in NHS history, has raised security concerns.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) went to the Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital maternity units in February for a "focused" review and said it found some improvements but they were "not robust".

The CQC said it found problems in cutting the risk of babies being abducted - such as security tags being easy to remove and insecure doors - while managers did not always look after staff well being.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust recognised there were "significant challenges for our colleagues working in maternity services".

The CQC report, which did not issue any new ratings, stated: "We undertook a focused inspection to review progress to enforcement action that we had undertaken following our previous inspection in May 2025.

"We found that some improvements had been made and whilst concerns had been addressed the underpinning actions were not robust.

"This included the procedures for reducing the risk of babies being abducted and the support of junior staff."

While the service had a proactive and positive culture of safety, inspectors felt lessons were not always learnt.

Staff did not report all events of aggression and violence from patients as they were not assured action would be taken by the trust, the report added.

Baby abduction drills were recorded as completed but 12 members of staff questioned by inspectors could not remember when the last drill took place.

Alarms on babies were found to be easy to remove, while security doors were slow to close and people were buzzed through with little or no inspection, the CQC stated.

Another area of concern highlighted in the report was that the service did not always seem to care about and promote the well being of its staff, who reported feeling "overwhelmed".

During the inspection it was noted staff supported one another but they did not feel supported by the senior team.

One example was an "issue" which had occurred the day before the inspection and despite reporting it through the incident reporting system, senior staff had not provided any contact or support for more than five hours.

The report described junior staff as being "visibly upset".

A psychology support service was offered but did not seem to have been used, the report said.

Despite a team attempting to foster a positive culture where people felt they could speak up, staff did not always feel their voice would be heard.

Tracy Pilcher, chief nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), said: "The CQC recognise the progress that we have made in response to the May 2025 inspection, but have highlighted the areas in which staff had told them we need to make improvements.

"We know that there are significant challenges for our colleagues working in maternity services and we are thankful for their commitment to caring for women and families.

"We need to do more to support them to do that in the culture and environment that they deserve and that we all aspire to."

Following dozens of baby deaths and injuries at the trust, NUH's maternity services were made the subject of the biggest review of its kind in the NHS, with about 2,500 cases being examined.

The review led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden is due to be published next month.

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