Bradford hospital trust's neonatal services 'outstanding'

The health and social care watchdog carried out unannounced focused inspections on maternity services and medical care at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

It has led to three new reports on the trust’s services - including an overall ‘outstanding’ rating for neonatal care and ‘good’ ratings for safety and leadership on the maternity ward.

The visits followed whistleblowing concerns raised by staff and concerns from people who had received treatment at the trust, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said. 

However, the CQC said inspectors found “the concerns were unsubstantiated” during their visit.

Inspectors also looked at neonatal services due to concerns raised about how the service learned from incidents.

Outside Bradford Royal Infirmary

Neonatal services 

Neonatal services – as well as being rated 'outstanding' overall - was ranked 'outstanding' for being caring and well-led. 

It was also rated as ‘good’ for safety, effectiveness and responsiveness. 

This is the first time the neonatal unit has been rated as a standalone service. It was previously part of the trust’s children and young people’s services.

The CQC found the service was ‘performing exceptionally well’, was ‘exceptionally caring’ and families felt valued and part of the team caring for their baby.

Professor Mel Pickup, chief executive at BTHFT, expressed her thanks to all colleagues who work on the unit. 

Prof Pickup said: “The Neonatal Unit provides a unique and specialist service to babies, mothers and families at what is often an extremely worrying and emotional time. I’m very proud that the CQC found the team to be committed to treating patients and those close to them with compassion and kindness.”

Maternity services 

While the CQC’s overall ‘requires improvement’ rating for maternity services could not change since the last inspection, as the latest inspection only looked at two areas of the service, there were improvements.

Photo of a parent and baby touching hands (Image: Pixabay) The safety element of the report has improved from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’ while leadership was re-rated as ‘good’. 

The categories on effectiveness and responsiveness were not included in this inspection and remain rated as ‘requires improvement’. The category of being caring was not inspected and remains rated as ‘good’.

Prof Pickup added: “The maternity services improvements are a credit to colleagues working in this area. These, together with the outstanding rating for our neonatal services are a clear indication of our trajectory of improvement."

The Women’s and Newborn Unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary

Medical care

Medical care received an overall rating of ‘good’ as did the categories for being safe and well-led. The category on effectiveness was re-rated as ‘requires improvement’.

Other categories for being caring and responsive were not included in this inspection and remain rated as ‘good’.

“I’m pleased that the CQC has recognised our medical care as ‘good’ and well-led with patients receiving compassionate care and treatment from our dedicated and committed colleagues. These are strong foundations for further improvement to deliver even better quality care," said Prof Pickup.

“While our outstanding neonatal rating and improvements in other services are great news for patients, colleagues and communities, this is not about standing still. There will always be areas we need to focus on to improve service users and carers’ experience of our services and we will work tirelessly to do this.”

The overall ratings for Bradford Royal Infirmary and the trust remain rated as good.

What has the CQC said?

Sheila Grant, CQC deputy director of operations for the north, said: “Before our inspection at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, we had received some concerns about the care and treatment people were receiving in medicines, neonatal and maternity services.

"However, when we inspected these three services, we found the concerns were unsubstantiated and people using the services spoke positively about their experiences of care.

“In neonatal services, we found staff were providing exceptional care and treatment to people.

"Safety and continuity of care was consistently a priority for families and their babies, so they received the best possible experience during a difficult time. In this service we were pleased to see an open and honest culture, and managers regularly praised the hard work and commitment shown by staff.

“Staff in medical care showed compassion towards people. People told us they felt included in their care planning and were positive about their experience. Leaders had also created a culture of safety and learning from incidents, to help prevent them from happening again.

“In maternity services, we found there were ongoing improvements, and people were positive about their care, praising their midwives and saying they would recommend them to others. 

“The trust should look to learn how they can extend the excellent practice we found in neonatal to their other services. We will continue to monitor the trust and will return to check on progress.”