A hospital leader in Newcastle gave the Royal Victoria Infirmary's maternity unit a personal vote of confidence despite a critical Care Quality Commission report - saying he wouldn't want family members to give birth anywhere else.
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust medical director Andy Welch was speaking a meeting of the trust's board last week when he said he backed staff and felt other sources of data such as patient outcomes did not chime with the CQC criticism. The maternity unit was hit with a "requires improvement" rating following an inspection this January.
Inspectors felt there were "gaps" in some staff training and some equipment was out of date. When the report was published in May, hospital bosses said they did not think the report was a "fair reflection" of the service - and highlighted "many positive findings" also in the report.
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And now Mr Welch has again backed staff - saying it was vital to remind them how valued those in the unit are to the organisation as a whole. He said: "Over the last few months it's evident that a number of services in the North East and Yorkshire have all been re-graded as 'requires improvement' for all sorts of reasons.
"We have spoken to our midwives and for me - there's nowhere I would rather my children to have their children other than at Newcastle Hospitals. The CQC report has been a hit to staff, and it's important to remind them how important they are, no matter what the CQC says."
In May, the trust said action was being taken to address the three areas of concern raised by the CQC. The service will be re-inspected in the coming months.
In publishing the critical report, Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC’s deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said: "When we visited maternity services at Royal Victoria Infirmary, we found leaders understood and managed the priorities and issues the service faced, however more work needs to be done to address safety concerns across the service.
“For example, inspectors found issues with equipment in the Newcastle Birthing Centre. There was out of date equipment on wards and resuscitation trolleys, also daily checks on emergency equipment weren’t adequate which could put people’s health at risk if their condition deteriorates.
“However, staff worked well together for the benefit of women and people using the service and understood how to protect them from abuse."
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