Derby and Burton maternity services make 'sustained improvement' says healthcare regulator | Latest news

Maternity care in Derby and Burton is safer, with families feeling involved and supported in their care, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said following its inspection of maternity services at Royal Derby Hospital (RDH) and Queen's Hospital Burton (QHB).

The CQC inspect services against five domains to measure the safety and quality of care and the experience provided to families. Following a three-day inspection of maternity services in June 2026, it has now published its report of findings and, in response to 'sustained improvements', both sites have received improved ratings. 

Maternity care at Royal Derby Hospital is now rated as 'Good', while Queen's Hospital Burton remains 'Requires Improvement', with three out of five domains now rated 'Good'.

This is the second consecutive time the CQC have improved the ratings, as maternity services were last rated 'Requires Improvement' following an inspection in December 2024. 

The improved ratings are a key milestone in the ongoing improvement work happening at the Trust, which is driven by dedicated and compassionate maternity teams. Over the past three years the Trust has invested in its workforce and implemented big changes to how women are triaged, babies are monitored, and obstetric related bleeds are managed - helping to improve care, outcomes and experience for the women, birthing people and babies using our maternity and neonatal services. 

Sarah Noble, Director of Midwifery said: "While the improved ratings evidence that we are an improving maternity service, and are focusing on the right things, we know there is still more work to do in all areas, particularly in community care, and at Queen's Hospital Burton, and we will not stop, because every family deserves the very best care now, and in the future.

"I am proud of our dedicated midwives, doctors and support teams, who are driving our improvement work - and we will continue to listen to families and act on feedback. 

"We have taken these reports seriously and, in addition to the changes we have already made, our focus remains firmly on continuing our progress to improve the quality of care and experience we provide, inside both of our hospitals, and in the community."

The CQC reports identify key areas that have improved since their last inspection, which was published 12 months ago, including the approach to safely handing over patients between shifts, medical and midwifery staff working well together to support women, strengthened medical oversight of services and improved personalised care plans with midwives wrapping their support around individuals. 

Families who talked to the CQC during the inspection also described their care as 'high-quality and responsive' and said that they felt listened to and involved in making decisions about their care, with patient surveys and feedback also showing an improvement in patient satisfaction.

"Personalised care has been a real focus for our teams," added Sarah. "What matters to women, matters to us, and by working in partnership with families, and listening to their individual needs, we can tailor our approach to deliver consistent safe care."

The Trust is three years into a structured improvement programme, through which clinicians are driving up standards in maternity and neonatal care. Alongside the consecutive CQC inspection improvements, the Trust has improved compliance with other national safety measuring including achieving full compliance of a national maternity safety plan (MIS), and a reduction in care concerns relating to harm. 

We are continuing to improve

• We have expanded our senior doctor capacity by appointing seven additional consultants (three already recruited) and five middle grade doctors who will work across triage, theatre, labour ward, and the post-natal wards to provide quicker access to a doctor for women.
  
  
• We are working with our community midwives to transform the way we deliver antenatal and postnatal care. Women tell us they want one midwife, and to build a trusting relationship throughout their pregnancy journey. Building on our approach to personalise care, we will wrap community care around the needs of each individual by working closely with health visitors, mental health teams, and community services, to provide pregnancy care, alongside community family support.
  
  
• Strengthening community engagement is shaping more inclusive, accessible and responsive services. We have developed a Maternity and Neonatal Health Inequalities Forum, in partnership with local communities, to improve engagement with Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups, who experience health inequalities - with over 180 people involved so far in sharing feedback. This is an area where we are committed to taking action. 
  
  
• We have an experienced workforce, supported by midwives who qualified in the last 18 months. This group of valued colleagues make up 9.3% of our workforce, and are supported by a team of Early Career Midwives who are dedicated to supporting this group to learn, grow and develop under supervision.
  
  
• Training compliance has improved with newborn basic life support, monitoring babies' heartrates and skills training in managing obstetric emergencies, all above the national target of 90%, with bespoke training courses developed in response to service need, including a recent homebirth simulation course involving community teams, hospital midwives, and the ambulance service.
  
  
• Midwifery staffing levels continue to grow in line with demand. Red flag incidents, which is a national tool to identify occasions where staffing pressures may impact care, continue to show a downward trend with no patient safety incidents over the past two months relating to staffing issues.   
  
  
• We have fewer cases that meet the criteria for external review through the national Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MNSI) framework, and of those that do, we have seen fewer safety recommendations which evidences we are learning from previous cases, and are adhering to national guidance and best practice.
  
  
• We continue to invest in community midwifery to meet demand, and sustain a safe, reliable homebirth service. We send two midwives to all homebirths from the start, and have a team of experienced, qualified midwives, supported by a larger leadership team, who provide this support on a rota. Over the past six months we have supported 31 homebirths, and the service has remained open with no suspensions.  We have enhanced expertise in fetal monitoring (to monitor babies' heartrates), and compliance with hourly 'fresh eye' checks, where a second independent person reviews a heart rate recording to provide an additional level of safety and accuracy, is 91% at QHB and 90% at RDH.
  
  
• We are investing in maternity spaces and equipment as well as staffing and now have critical care support for women inside both maternity units, some neonatal transitional care beds inside maternity spaces, and a state-of-the art special care baby unit at Queen's Hospital Burton >. Next year, a new maternity triage unit will also open at QHB. We invested £1.6m into BadgerNet, an electronic maternity record system which is helping us to join up services, improving documentation and preventing women having to repeat their story as information is recorded once and is accessible to all relevant professionals. 
  
  

Megan Lewis and her partner Tom Ford welcomed baby Rowena during the early hours of Tuesday morning (10 November), after Megan became unwell and needed an emergency caesarean section. Megan's pregnancy was high risk, and she shared her experience of having her baby girl, the week that inspection reports were published.

She said: "I am neurodivergent, and so is my husband, so we had lots of questions, and needed additional support navigating the maternity system. Giving birth is really scary, especially when you are a first time parent, but every person has treated us with kindness and respect. In every area, triage, theatre, and since she has been born, we feel safe, listened to, supported and well looked after."

Support for families 

• We welcome parents, parents-to-be and families with any questions or concerns contacting us so that we can offer support. They can contact their Community Midwife or our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at: Telephone: 01332 785 156; Text: 07799 337 500; Email: uhdb.contactpalsderby@nhs.net.
  
  
• Women and families may also wish to engage with their local Maternity & Neonatal Voice Partnership (MNVP) at ddicb.derbyshirematernityvoices@nhs.net (Derbyshire) or sasot.mnvp@nhs.net (Staffordshire).