Whipps Cross Hospital’s maternity service has been rated ‘Good’ by a national healthcare watchdog.

The Leytonstone hospital’s maternity unit was graded following an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in October.

The report, published yesterday (December 17), rated the service as ‘Good’ in all five inspection criteria, upgrading its ‘safety’ rating from ‘requires improvement’ at its previous inspection in 2016.

CQC inspectors said the service had addressed areas of improvement since the previous inspection.

Staff were praised for treating patients with “compassion and kindness” and for respecting their ‘privacy, dignity, and individual needs.’

Inspectors added: “Women told us they felt listened to by health professionals and felt informed and involved in their treatment and plans of care. Staff provided emotional support to patients, families and carers.”

The report also highlighted The Female Genital Mutilation team who were involved in the first UK court conviction against FGM in February 2019 and was a finalist for a national award for its FGM specialised Lotus clinic.

Dr Nigel Acheson, CQC deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said “At Whipps Cross Hospital maternity department inspectors saw some outstanding practice. The service exceeded the Better Births Strategy’s national target for the percentage of women booked into continuity of care pathways and personalised care.”

The national target for the Better Births Strategy is to have greater than 20 per cent of women booked into continuity of care pathways - Whipps Cross Hospital’s current performance is 35 per cent.

Continuity of care is care provided throughout the pregnancy, birth and the early parenting period.

To further improve the service, CQC said the trust should address the high vacancy rates for midwifery staff and focus on recruitment and staff retention.

However, inspectors added the service ensured there were enough staff with the right qualifications, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm.

Chief executive officer at Whipps Cross Hospital, Alan Gurney, said: “I am delighted that the maternity service at Whipps Cross have not only retained their overall rating of ‘good’ by the latest CQC inspection, but have actually improved further and are now rated ‘good’ in every domain.

“This is testament to the hard work of the whole team and will give enormous confidence to the users of the service and the local population. Congratulations to all involved.”

Whipps Cross is investing nearly £7 million to re-develop its maternity services with funding from the Barts Charity. Work has already started and will be completed by late 2020.