A London hospital investigated after a series of maternal deaths has made “significant improvements” in safety but needs to achieve further progress, the NHS watchdog said today.
Homerton Hospital’s maternity department was served with a “requirement notice” to improve learning from mistakes and continues to be rated overall as “requires improvement”, said the Care Quality Commission.
Inspectors returned to the hospital, in Hackney, last autumn after criticising it following the deaths of five women between July 2013 and January 2015.
Not all the women had died at the Homerton but the deaths sparked concerns and a whispering campaign by a secretive group, the Unhappy Midwives.
The CQC said safety improvements at the Homerton, which handles about 6,000 births a year, included better cleanliness and infection control as well as training staff to spot deteriorating patients. However, “robust checks” of babies were still not in place.
Homerton’s chief executive Tracey Fletcher said: “We are moving in the right direction but recognise we still have more work to do. We will continue to make further improvements which benefit our mothers and babies.”
