30 November 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
We inspected the maternity service at Northampton General Hospital as part of our national maternity inspection programme. The programme aims to give an up-to-date view of hospital maternity care across the country and help us understand what is working well to support learning and improvement at a local and national level.
We will publish a report of our overall findings when we have completed the national inspection programme.
We carried out a short notice announced focused inspection of the maternity service, looking only at the safe and well-led key questions.
The inspection was carried out using a post-inspection data submission and an on-site inspection where we observed the environment, observed care, conducted interviews with patients and staff, reviewed policies, care records medicines charts and documentation. Following the site visit, we conducted interviews with senior leaders and reviewed feedback from women and families about the trust.
We ran a poster campaign during our inspection to encourage pregnant women and mothers who had used the service to give us feedback regarding care. We analysed the results to identify themes and trends.
Northampton General Hospital is the main site for maternity services for the trust. It comprises of a central birth suite which was midwife lead, a labour ward with maternity theatres and a close observation unit. Post and antenatal wards, day assessment unit, and maternity triage.
A higher proportion of mothers (16%) were in the second most deprived decile at booking compared to the national average. There were 75% white women, with 12% Asian or Asian British and 6% Black or Black British women. There was also an increasing community presence of an Afghanistan community.
Maternity services delivered 4,019 babies between January and December 2021.
We did not rate this hospital at this inspection. The previous rating of requires improvement remains.
How we carried out the inspection
You can find further information about how we carry out our inspections on our website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/what-we-do/how-we-do-our-job/what-we-do-inspection.